Tracking America's Economy

This completely revised and updated edition of Norman Frumkin's acclaimed work offers vital information for the urgent growing debate on the state of the nation's economy. Frumkin makes complex ideas and statistical data accessible to people without special training in economics. His goal in this book is to provide a better understanding of the performance of the American economy, and a basis for evaluating proposals intended to influence its future course. Using data current through the first half of 2003, Frumkin focuses on the meaning and use of a wide array of indicators of economic growth, employment, wages, productivity, investment, saving, and finance in assessing the current state of the U.S. economy and forecasting future developments. Equally useful for economists, students, investors, journalists, and anyone concerned with the economy, this totally revised edition includes detailed coverage of many important new topics, such as terrorism's impact on the economy, federal debt and interest rates, job openings and unemployment, government spending and taxes, the 2001 recession, and more. 1: Attributes of Economic Indicators; 2: Framework for Macroeconomic Analysis and Policies; 3: Economic Growth; 4: Household Income, Saving, and Expenditures; 5: Business Profits, Nonresidential Investment, and Housing; 6: Government; 7: The United States in the World Economy; 8: Employment, Worker Income, and Employer Costs; 9: Unemployment; 10: Productivity; 11: Inflation and Deflation; 12: Finance; 13: Leading Indicator System; 14: Noneconomic Intangibles