Weak dollar costs U.S. economy its No. 1 spot

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Weak dollar costs U.S. economy its No. 1 spot
Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:20am EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. economy lost the title of "world's
biggest" to the euro zone this week as the value of the dollar
slumped in currency markets.

Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007,
the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro
overtook that of the United States when the European currency
surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro.

"The curious outcome of breaching this latest milestone is that
the size of the euro zone's annual output has now exceeded that
of the U.S.," the economics department of Goldman Sachs, the
Wall Street investment bank, said in a note to clients.

Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP -- $13,843,800 billion
for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the
euro zone -- the economy of the latter passed the United
States once converted into dollars, shortly after the euro
topped $1.56.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1491971920080314

[Beetwasher]

1. Dayum

That's pretty fucking historic. :wow:

[Captain Angry]

2. Not even close.

The European Union, 27 countries combined, have a somewhat larger GDP which is nearly impossible to compute, when exchange rates are considered.

#1 = USA
#2 = China at 50% of the USA.
#3 = Japan at 25% of the USA.
#4 = India at 20% of the USA.
#5 = Germany at 20% of the USA.

Source: CIA Factbook Online (PS: Don't worry that they called it 2001 rank, the numbers are 2007)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html



All that said, things are changing. If we want to regain the lead we once had, we have some work to do.