Oecd Economic Surveys : United States 2010

OECD's 2010 review of the US economy. This edition looks at rebalancing the economy following the crisis, restoring fiscal sustainability, and the special feature covers implementing cost-effective policies to mitigate climate change.

Basic statistics of the United States Executive summary Assessment and recommendations -1. Rebalancing the economy after the crisis -2. Putting public finances on a sustainable path -3. Implementing cost-effective climate change-mitigation policies -Annex A.1. Progress in structural reform Chapter 1. Rebalancing the economy -Rebalancing the economy away from overinvestment in housing and increasing the resilience of the mortgage market. -Revising financial supervision to reduce the likelihood of future financial crises and lessen their transmission to other areas of the economy -Repairing household balance sheets and reducing the current account imbalance -Avoiding reduced labour market flexibility -Annex 1.A1. Housing choice with a changing interest rate in a two period optimization problem Chapter 2. Restoring fiscal sustainability. -After the crisis: dealing with large fiscal imbalances -Pathways toward fiscal stability -The long-term fiscal outlook is challenging -Annex 2.A1. A small budget simulation model Chapter 3. Implementing cost-effective policies to mitigate climate change -It would be prudent to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to limit climate change -The United States is a major emitter of GHG -Participation of the United States and other large emitters is pivotal to reaching an international agreement to reduce GHG emissions -The most cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions is to price them and to support the development and diffusion of emission-reducing technologies -Government policies implemented thus far to reduce GHG emission have been neither ambitious nor cost effective -The current Administration's preferred climate-change policy would yield large cost-effective reductions in emissions if implemented