Views on economic impact

Since the stagflation of the 1970s, the U.S. economy has been characterized by slower GDP growth. In 1985, the U.S. began its growing trade deficit with China. Over the long run, nations with trade surpluses tend also to have a savings surplus while the U.S. has been plagued by persistently lower savings rates than its trading partners which tend to have trade surpluses with the U.S. Germany, France, Japan, and Canada have maintained higher savings rates than the U.S. over the long run.[9] Some economists believe that GDP and employment can be dragged down by an over-large deficit over the long run.[10][11] Wealth-producing primary sector jobs in the U.S. such as those in manufacturing and computer software have often been replaced by much lower paying wealth-consuming jobs such those in retail and government in the service sector when the economy recovered from recessions.[12][13][5] Some economists contend that the U.S. is borrowing to fund consumption of imports while accumulatiing unsustainable amounts of debt.[2][14]

In 2006, the primary economic concerns centered around: high national debt ($9 trillion), high non-bank corporate debt ($9 trillion), high mortgage debt ($9 trillion), high financial institution debt ($12 trillion), high unfunded Medicare liability ($30 trillion), high unfunded Social Security liability ($12 trillion), high external debt (amount owed to foreign lenders) and a serious deterioration in the United States net international investment position (NIIP) (-24% of GDP),[2] high trade deficits, and a rise in illegal immigration.[15][14]

These issues have raised concerns among economists and unfunded liabilities were mentioned as a serious problem facing the United States in the President's 2006 State of the Union address.[16][15] On June 26 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce, commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much in some areas and can no longer rely on the financial sector and consumer spending to drive demand