What are the economic issues in the US?

Answer 1

It would be a mistake to think that there is just one thing wrong with the economy of the USA. There are a number of serious problems. One very big problem is that the financial sector (banks, insurance companies, stock brokerages, investment managers) has made grave errors in recent years, in terms of what are known as sub-prime mortgages (which means, financing home purchases by people who can't actually afford to buy homes) because they sought short-term profit at the expense of long-term viability. This was allowed to happen essentially because in a free market economy, we just let people do as they wish and either reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. But in this case, the consequences affect everybody. The US economy has also suffered in recent decades because of increasingly effective competition from other countries, many of whom can offer cheaper labor than the US, and/or lower taxes.