<P> In the 1970s and 1980s, it was popular in the U.S. to believe that Japan's economy would surpass that of the U.S., but this did not happen . </P> <P> Since the 1970s, several emerging countries have begun to close the economic gap with the United States . In most cases, this has been due to moving the manufacture of goods formerly made in the U.S. to countries where they could be made for sufficiently less money to cover the cost of shipping plus a higher profit . In other cases, some countries have gradually learned to produce the same products and services that previously only the U.S. and a few other countries could produce . Real income growth in the U.S. has slowed </P> <P> The United States economy experienced a crisis in 2008 led by a derivatives market and subprime mortgage crisis, and a declining dollar value . On December 1, 2008, the NBER declared that the United States entered a recession in December 2007, citing employment and production figures as well as the third quarter decline in GDP . The recession did, however, lead to a reduction in record trade deficits, which fell from $840 billion annually during the 2006--08 period, to $500 billion in 2009, as well as to higher personal savings rates, which jumped from a historic low of 1% in early 2008, to nearly 5% in late 2009 . The merchandise trade deficit rose to $670 billion in 2010; savings rates, however, remained at around 5% . In 2016, median income reached a record high . </P> <P> The development of the United States' GDP according to World Bank: US real GDP grew by an average of 1.7% from 2000 to the first half of 2014, a rate around half the historical average up to 2000 . </P>

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