As the U.S. economy looks for traction in the second half of 2014, the clouds of disappointing consumer demand could overcome the dynamics of energy development, exports and the limited return of offshore production to America’s slowly recovering manufacturing capacity.
Within the past half century, the main dynamic of America’s gross domestic product world leadership has been generated by an all-time high population of 320 million. This is by far the outstanding growth record of the developed world, comprised of Western Europe (primarily Germany, France and the United Kingdom), Japan and, to a lesser extent, much of Southeast Asia, where consumer demand has awakened as a major factor in these nations’ growth.