Economic growth, or expansion is an increase in a nation's capacity to produce goods and services over time. It is usually calculated using a country's gross domestic product (GDP) as compared to the country's population.[1][2]
Ideally, sustainable growth should be 3% or more, as it was in the early 1950s and late 1980s, when the Nation benefited from Reaganomics. However, during the Obama Administration GDP never exceeded 2% annually. If economic growth - the creation of new goods and services (and money supply expansion) - does not match or exceed population growth, the society is in a static zero sum or collapsing recessionary state.
A recession marks a period of "negative growth," a contracting or shrinking economy.
References
- ↑ Bjork, Gordon J. (1999). The Way It Worked and Why It Won’t: Structural Change and the Slowdown of U.S. Economic Growth. Westport, CT; London: Praeger. pp. 2, 67. ISBN 0-275-96532-5
- ↑ http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oecon/chap12.htm