The U.S. emerged from the war as the world's dominant producer of goods and services.

WSJ: Phil Gramm and Steve McMillin: The Debt Problem Hasn't Vanished

The Russian property industry, potentially a large consumer of financial services and producer of debt, is still in its infancy.

ECONOMIST: Russian finance

For those firms, a baseline premise of what it means for them to be a trusted producer of goods and services is behind their push into sustainability.

FORBES: Why Are Law Firms Stalling On Sustainability?

On the other hand, in just 20 years, Dubai has successfully transformed itself from a small-scale oil producer into a regional services hub proof that riches and determination can pull off the most improbable schemes.

ECONOMIST: Finance in the Gulf

It was first proposed 87 years ago by Irving Fisher, an American economist who believed that policy makers should try to stabilise a broadly defined price index which included asset prices such as shares, bonds and property as well as the prices of producer and consumer goods and services.

ECONOMIST: Should central banks try to target asset-price inflation?

Consumers might be paying through the nose for goods and services, but the producer price index is on the decline.

FORBES: China Inflation Takes Bite Out Of Equities

Once again America, as both a big agricultural producer and a home to strong services industries, has much to gain from the forthcoming Doha round.

ECONOMIST: Trade

These fast-growing, adroit and well-managed companies help set the benchmarks for their respective industries. (Full methodology can be found here.) Just five Canadian companies make this elite group of 130: Brookfield Asset Management, Manulife, metals producer Teck Cominco, Calgary-based TV and internet services provider Shaw Communications and Suncor Energy.

FORBES: Magazine Article

If the United States is an efficient money-producer, it should be able to reap mountains of goods and services for the money it creates.

FORBES: To Fund The Federal Government We Don't Need Federal Taxation