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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release June 5, 2000

Background for Digital Economy 2000 Report

This year's "Digital Economy 2000" report was preceded by reports in both 1998 and 1999 that were called "The Emerging Digital Economy." The term "Emerging" has been dropped because the digital economy has now emerged. While the report updates last year's report, it also covers significant new ground. Highlights include:

Digital Economy 2000 arrays compelling evidence that the U.S. economy has crossed into a new era of greater economic prosperity and possibility, much as it did it did after the development and spread of the electric dynamo and the internal combustion engine. That doesn't mean that the business cycle is a thing of the past or that we will never face another economic slowdown. What it means is that in the era of the Internet and other information technologies, the American economy may be able to achieve rates of economic growth that are higher and more sustained than in the past, with stronger income gains and lower inflation and unemployment than we have seen for a generation.