Real gross domestic income grew at an annual rate of 4.2% per
annum in the USA between 1949 and 1973. Since the US exchange
rate was floated in March 1973, the rate of economic growth has
declined to average 2.7% up until 2011. In Australia, real gross
domestic income was growing at an annual rate of 5.2% per annum
between 1960 and 1973. That was under the fixed exchange rate
system. Between 1973 and 1983, after the USA had floated its
currency but before Australia had floated, the average real rate
of economic growth in Australia declined to 2.0%. Since 1983,
when Australia floated its exchange rate, real gross domestic
income has grown at an average rate of 3.8% per annum (to 2009).
Rather than raising the rate of economic growth, floating the
exchange rate has slowed the rate of economic growth by 34% in
the USA and 27% in Australia. Floating the dollar has had an
effect on wages growth. In the USA, average weekly earnings for
the private non-farm sector was rising at 1.2% per annum in real
terms, from 196