Importance of the Economy.

By 1950 people generally recognized that the nation's economy — the financial performance of its businesses — affects every American personally. The security of our jobs and how much we earn doing them, the cost of the goods we buy, the price we pay to borrow money, and the interest we get by saving it are all directly related to the health of the economy. During the 1950s the American economy was the strongest in the world.

Biggest in the World.

A nation's prosperity is measured by its national income — the value of all the goods and services it produces, also called the gross national product (GNP). By that measure, as by many others, the United States was the unquestioned world leader after World War II. In 1950 the U.S. GNP was $284.6 billion, and by the end of the 1950s it had increased to...