The U. S. economy demystified Book

	Figures and Tables
	Foreword
	Preface to the Third Edition
	Introduction
1	The Long Wave of History	1
	Historical Origins: the Big Bang	2
	The Wave in Descent	7
	Worldview	11
2	The National Economic Accounting System	15
	The Structure of the Accounts	16
	The Measure of Output and Expenditure	29
	The Income Side of the Accounts	38
	Relations Between the Output and Income Sides of the Accounts	49
	Housing in the National Accounts	52
	Saving and Investment in the National Accounts	54
	The Federal Government in the National Accounts	58
	Long-Term Trends in the National Accounts	59
	Actual and Middle-Expansion Trend Output	61
3	The Data Stream	64
	The Personal Sector: Income, Spending, Credit Use	64
	The Housing Market	68
	Capital Spending and Its Sources	70
	Accounting for Corporate Profits	73
	The Manufacturing Industries: Production, Sales, Inventories, Orders	76
	Employment and Unemployment	79
	Prices, Wages, and Productivity	82
	Financial Data: The Capital Markets	87
4	How to Watch the Business Cycle	91
	The Cycle in the Statistics	97
	Foreshadowing Statistics	103
	Other Indicators of the Cycle	103
5	The Influence of Economic Policy	112
	Fiscal Policy	113
	Fiscal Flux	119
	Monetary Policy	125
	The Condition of Financial Markets	128
6	The United States in the World	138
7	Inflation and Economic Policies	148
8	The Wave of the Future	160
	The Growth Rate Itself	162
	The Trend in the Labor Force	165
	The Productivity Outlook	167
	A Laboring Government	168
	The United States in the World: An Emerging Normal	171
	Private-Sector Considerations	173
	The Social Burden	176
	The Ethical Burden	177
	Conclusions	179
9	Epilogue: A Footnote on the Mixed Economy	182
	Appendix A: Alphabetical List of Series	187
	Appendix B: Approximate Release Dates for Monthly Statistics	191
	Appendix C: Approximate Release Dates for Quarterly Statistics	192
	About the Authors	193
	About The Conference Board	194