United States Virtual Presence Post San Pedro Sula

"In 2002, imports to the United States from developing nations totaled a whopping US$ 317 billion.  The United States is the single largest market for developing nations' goods.  Exports from the U.S. to those nations totaled $130 billion.  In other words, with developing countries, the United States buys a good deal more than it sells."

~ Kevin A. Hassett, American Enterprise Institute

Opportunities in the Largest Market in the World

The U.S. has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of US$ 41,800.  In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace.  U.S. business firms enjoy considerably greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products.  At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in U.S. markets.

U.S. firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II.  The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits.  Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.

The response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 showed the remarkable resilience of the economy.  The war in March/April 2003 between a U.S.-led coalition and Iraq, and the subsequent occupation of Iraq, required major shifts in national resources to the military.  The rise in GDP in 2004 and 2005 was undergirded by substantial gains in labor productivity.  The economy suffered from a sharp increase in energy prices in mid-2005, but by late in the year those prices dropped back to earlier levels.  Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage in the Gulf Coast region, but had a small impact on overall GDP growth for the year.

Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade and budget deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups.