There's no question that the U.S. economy remains incredibly fragile: unemployment is high, growth has only been anemic, and rhetoric in Washington is only beginning to ramp up before the election.
But when looking at the country's global peers — especially in Europe — things start to look not just middling, but surprisingly robust.
Take the U.K., which is in substantially better shape than periphery neighbors. The country just revised lower the economic contraction it experienced in the first quarter and austerity measures are continuing to strain whatever soft recovery was hoped for.
The U.S. still faces tough macro headwinds as it heads towards 2013, but with a resurgent manufacturing industry, healthy demographics, and relatively stable markets, there are a few reasons to be glad to work on U.S. soil.
A manufacturing renaissance is boosting GDP
For years as China rose and U.S. manufacturing declined, people said those jobs were gone for good. But since 2010, U.S. manufacturers have added some 489,000 jobs. Gains are coming from improved competitiveness, which could bring as many as two to three million jobs back to the United States. Manufacturing unit labor costs declined 10.8 percent between 2002 and 2010, a decrease matched only by Taiwan. Auto manufacturing has been an area of strength, accounting for 1.12 percent of GDP growth last quarter, about half of total growth. Other strong areas in U.S. manufacturing are computer and electronic products, food and beverages, and chemicals.
GDP per capita ranks in the top 5% of the world
Of 227 countries and territories ranked by the CIA World Factbook, U.S. GDP per capita remains in the top 5 percent, behind natural resource heavy waits like Qatar and the U.A.E. GDP per capita currently stands at $47,200. In this chart from the St. Louis Fed, the rate has increased steadily since the 1960s, even after recessions have taken some bite from it. Already in 2010 and 2011, GDP per capita has re-accelerated as the overall economy begins growing.
Easy access to credit and capital markets
American consumers and businesses have relative ease when accessing credit markets — whether in opening a credit card or obtaining a revolving credit facility. Robust credit agencies and ratings firms provide financial institutions with the ability to judge those seeking credit accurately. Activity by ratings firms that resulted in the 2008 financial crisis put some of that into question. But overall bank lending has returned to healthier levels; measurements from the Fed's H.8 report puts the figure of loans and leases held by the nation's commercial banks at $7.1 trillion, up $315 billion from year ago levels.
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