Word: record
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Public Works. Government is the country's biggest business, and the Treasury takes in so much money that it actually has a problem spending it. In the last fiscal year, expenditures came to a record $1.1 billion, but income (60% from oil) reached a record $1.6 billion. To get rid of it all, the government depends on lavish public works totaling 57% of the budget. Grafters do their bit to balance the books by taking from 10% to 30% on contracts...
Since 1950, gross national product has almost doubled to $5.9 billion. Oil production has nearly doubled to 2,700,000 bbl. a day, and with new wells coming in at record rates, oilmen foresee that it may rise another 85% by 1966. Oil now accounts for about $2 billion in exports, or about 95% of the yearly total. Iron-ore production, mostly by the United States Steel Corp. mines at Cerro Bolivar, increased by a third in 1957 to about 15 million tons. Irrigation projects and rapid farm mechanization have boosted agriculture until Venezuela now produces...
...Record Setters. This statistical downtrend at year's end had economists and statesmen worried, particularly since some of the prophets saw the economy getting worse before it gets better. But even including the year-end dip, 1957 was a remarkable year for business. The U.S. economy had operated at forced draft for all but the final few months. And in so doing it produced what in many respects was the most prosperous year in history...
Scores of companies set new sales and profit records, and so many others came close to old records that 1957 easily topped the peaks of '56. The gross national product increased another 5% to an alltime high of $436 billion. Industrial production edged up to a record average for the year of 144; employment reached an alltime peak of 67.2 million before dropping at year's end; corporate assets swelled to $229 billion. Wages continued to rise. The average hourly pay rose from $2.05 in January to $2.10 near year's end. Despite worry over the squeeze...
...since it was on the way up at year's end, should pick up more next year. Overlaying all, there is the mighty U.S. populace, whose growth is estimated at the rate of about 2,000,000 new consumers each year, and whose appetite, even in the record year with the dip at the end, knew no bounds...