Washington DC as a World City - Case Study Example

‘Economic Transformation’ would be the right term to describe the Economic conditions in Washington, considering it's past and present. The Economic trends in Washington can be best described considering the factors like population, personal income, per capita income, employment, total industry earnings and average earnings per job (pnreap.org, 2006). The population growth in Washington from 1970 to 2005 is around 1.8% which when compared with the total US population growth of 1.08% is quite high (pnreap.org, 2006).

This is due to immigration to Washington due to opportunities available here. However the percentage of growth from 2000 to 2005 has been moderate, that is only 1.2% (pnreap.org, 2006). On the other hand the personal Income Growth in Washington has been 3.8% compared to the total US growth of 3% (pnreap.org, 2006). This shows the kind of Economic growth in Washington when compared to US as a whole. It also shows that a major contribution for the Economic development of the US is rendered by Washington.

This continued over a period of around 30 Years in US. Per capita Income can be termed as the barometer for calibrating Economic growth. However, the per capita Income distribution in Washington has been rather a flip flop during various intervals of time. During the 70's the Per capita Income was 2.7% when compared to 1.5% of US and in 80's it dropped down to 1.4% which again shot up to 2.5% in 90's and in late 21st century it was an all time low of 0.5% (pnreap.org, 2006). Many factors that include droughts in jobs, major business flops and lesser concentration on production, terrorist threats lead to this low growth of per capita Income.

However, this was more than the growth of its neighboring regions. The promising factor over the past 30 years has been that of the total employment growth that accounted for around 2.6% which when compared to 1.8% of US is quite high. This shows vast employment opportunities here. The total industrial earnings in Washington are about 3.5% which has been much higher than 2.9% of US (pnreap.org, 2006). This shows the Economic boost and stability provided to local economy by Washington. Washington's Role Globally and Government's Strategies In spite of many risks, for more than 30 years, Washington's economy had a consistent expansion and its economy is being more balanced.

Even when the domestic demand is less, the economy stands rock solid. The government takes planned actions like maintaining price stability and introduces structural reforms at many times that help improving domestic markets and encourage them to compete globally. Volatility and excessive changes in exchange rates are checked by continuous monitoring the exchange closely. Other policies include lowering tariffs and other rates to have a sustained growth in global trade and eliminate unemployment and poverty (washingtonbudgetreport.com, 2007).

The government has taken steps to enhance the local currency bond markets to sustain the growth of financial markets so as to reduce and withstand the external shocks and financial crisis. The Washington's government was quick to adapt to