However, in more recent years (as these cyclical forces abated) productivity growth slowed, as did employment growth, wage growth and overall economic growth. The uneveness in wealth distribution continued.
However, it may also have contributed to the expanding of the US trade deficit (Exports – Imports), as is shown by the graph of percentage change in Economic growth (red line) to balance of trade (blue line) (See Figure 2). From 1996 to 2000 there was a steady growth of the trade deficit, from -$100 billion to an all-time low at the time of nearly -$400 billion in 2000.
President Clinton was relatively hands-off in this department, only asking to tighten or loosen money three times each in eight years in the White House (A New Democrat). A possible explanation for this is that the Fed had the same sort of ideas that the president’s council of economic advisers believed in, and so there was not very much discord. Evidence for this is in the fact that most of his requests were made during the beginning of his presidency (A New Democrat) - presumably before he got his appointments onto the Board.