WOOH Write-Up Final - Ryan Ogawa Professor Vetter History...

Ryan Ogawa
Professor Vetter
History 137
December 9, 2015
WOOH Write-Up
What I Learned:
After researching the history of the US from 1990-2015, it became clear that there were
trends in the changes of our country’s economy. The economic progress of the US has been up
and down, going through stages of growth, decline, recession, and re-growth. During the 1990’s,
the US economy experienced an economic growth, during the 2000’s we experienced an
economic decline and crash, and currently, the US is going through a recession and are taking
measures to strengthen our economy once again.
The 1990’s economic boom marked a decade of an amazing recovery in growth rates that
the US was able to sustain from 1991 to 2001. President Clinton and the Clinton Administration
helped to spur the economic boom office from 1993-2001. During his time in office, President
Clinton was able to make the necessary moves in order to help the economy start to move
forward. “To reduce the federal budget deficit, he persuaded Congress to raise taxes on the
wealthiest Americans and on gasoline and to cut government spending. To create jobs, he
persuaded the Senate to ratify the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), eliminating
tariff barriers between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He also completed negotiations
on the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), reducing global trading barriers”
(Mintz). In an article that I researched, I was able to find out that there were three main factors
that helped to contribute faster consumption growth in the 1990s. “First, incomes grew due to

faster employment and faster wage growth in the second half of the 1990s, following falling
unemployment rates. Second, consumption was driven by rapidly rising stock prices. Reasonable
estimates suggest that as much as 84% of the increase in consumption between 1997 and 1999
were due to the run-up in stock prices. With a sharp decline in the value of the stock market since
early 2000, the so-called wealth effect also disappeared. Third, faster consumption growth
depended on more consumer debt” (Weller). The economy began to grow with the aid of the
Clinton Administration because consumers were buying, helping the economy to grow.
In the early 2000’s, the United States ranked as the most powerful country in the world.
Americans had one of the highest standards of living in the world. George W. Bush was elected
president in 2000 in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history. On September 11,
2001, the United States suffered the worst attack of terrorism in its history. In an article by
Bülent Gökay, he wrote that, “It has been claimed that 'the attacks on the United States (have
incalculable consequences for domestic politics and world affairs' with 'profound effects on the
US economy as well as the world” (Gökay). Government spending was shifted towards the
military with the new fear of terrorism and any further terrorist attacks coming from the Middle
East. Gökay went on to say, “The leading political power in this competition is the USA, whose