The US model of development is characterized by its adept ability to evolve, adapt and react to external conditions, for example after perceptions of economic decline in the late 1980s, its structural reform and transformation into a high-technology economy during the period of the information technology (IT) economic boom that started in the 1990s stands as testimony to its historically adaptable strength and resilience. This may be just one example of many which has historically led US out of cyclical recessions into prosperity time and again.

The US economy is also based on free competition, ensuring its industries are not sheltered from innovation and improvements from foreign competitors. Risk-averse culture may free up innovation, encourage leaps in product and technological development and inspire people to reach new heights in human achievements. The US economy has also demonstrated innovation in systemic innovation, churning out new ideas for management systems and seeking out growth opportunities whenever possible. The deregulation processes of the 1980s, implemented by the Reagan administration, and then broadened in the 1990s by Clinton freed up the service industries (for e.g. telecommunications) and made them highly competitive in the context of the US and then subsequently global economy. Later, this partly inspired innovation revolutions in information, communication and technology in other economies, which was an important factor in making globalization possible and shrinking the size of the world, facilitating global trade.