ATLANTA -- During Georgia Central Credit Union's 2007 EconomicSymposium, Jeff Rosensweig, director of the Global PerspectivesProgram at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University,discussed implications of global economic trends and the generalstate of the United States economy.

According to Rosensweig, the United States economy may not begrowing as quickly as other nations' markets, but it has beensteadily expanding for a greater period of time.

"The U.S. economy is up nearly six and a half times from 1950,while the world economy is up eight times," he said. In fact, theeconomy has grown four years in a row, which Rosensweig describesas "historical."

Rosensweig also mentioned the concern that the manufacturingsector has been in decline must be counterbalanced with theunderstanding that there has been a shift to service sector growth."Even in the worst job downturns, service jobs stayed strong andhave been rapidly increasing in recent years, despite the fact thatrecession has brought about a 'hollowing out of our factories.'" Hereminded participants of booming service industries such ashospitality, education, healthcare, and of course, financialservices.

Additionally, Rosensweig discussed the U.S. trade deficit, whichis at a record high at approximately $8 billion--two-thirds ofwhich is expended to pay for oil or goods from China. Surprisingsome in the audience, he also noted that the U.S. is the largestexporter in the world--contradictory to the belief that Americanproducts and services are not competitive or in demand. However, henoted that "we're in a very strong economy and our exports aregrowing really fast, so there's a good chance the trade deficitwill begin to shrink."