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Trade
America's main trade deficit was with China. The trade deficit exists because U.S. exported to China were only $116.2 billion while imports from China hit a new record of $481.9 billion. The deficit keeps growing because imports are rising faster than exports. http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/us-china-trade.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo -
Savings
Saving rates fell to lowest rates in 2007. This made people purchase more items they can’t afford. However, a pick in consumer spending was fending off fears of another recession. The economists hoped that the recession will make a period of thrift and it did have that effect. In December, 2007, consumers saved 2.6% of their income; whereas, in May 2008, the saving rate was as high as 8.3% http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/28/news/economy/income_spending/ -
Budget
The 2008 budgetary deficit ended up to be $410 billion. Spending on military, medicaid, social security, medicare, etc. lead to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo -
Leadership
Our leadership deficit is our nation's biggest challenge. Too many of our current leaders know we are facing a financial crisis yet they lack the courage to do something about it. Americans must cut government spending, pay more taxes, save more of their personal income and use less imported materials. -
Savings
The Obama administration proposed a solution to the retirement issue in 2013 in order to provide enough money for retirement: automatic I.R.A. It is designed to help people to save for retirement and offer tax advantages. More than 4 million people were using the program and it increased the annual savings by $7 billion a year. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/business/an-automatic-solution-for-the-retirement-savings-problem.html?_r=0
