Key Takeaways from Chart 7 and Commentary Introduction Previous charts in this series have illustrated the process of structural change in the US economy, showing the decline of manufacturing employment – both in absolute numbers…
Goldman’s Five Myths About China – A Reply
David P. Goldman, aka Spengler, recently published a short article entitled Five Myths About China, which summarizes remarks given at the National Conservatism Conference in September 2022. Goldman is, of course, a prominent and insightful…
Chart 6: Productivity Impact of Structural Change
Key Takeaways from Chart 6 and Commentary In the same way that the performance of a stock market index reflects the weighting and performance of its underlying stocks, the aggregate productivity of the economy reflects…
Chart 5: Structural Change in the US Economy
Key Takeaways from Chart 5 and Commentary Just as the performance of a stock market index reflects the weighting and performance of its underlying stocks, the aggregate productivity of the economy reflects the weighting and…
Chart 4: The Decline of US Manufacturing
Key Takeaways From Chart 4 and Commentary From a peak of 19.5 million jobs in 1979, manufacturing declined by 38% to 12.2 million at the end of 2020. As a share of private employment, manufacturing…
Chart 3: Sector Contributions to GDP Growth
Key Points from Chart 3 and Commentary Net Exports (Trade) was not responsible for the strong GDP growth of the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, however, there have been periods when trade has weighed heavily…
Chart 2: Sources of Per Capita GDP Growth
As a starting point for our analysis of the declining performance of the US economy, Chart 2 shows real per capita GDP growth broken down into four contributing sources: (1) Productivity, (2) Average Hours, (3)…
Chart 1: Measures of US Economic Performance
By almost any objective measure, the performance of the US economy has deteriorated sharply over the last five decades. Real GDP growth (BEA Table 1.1.1), shown by the black line, averaged 4% in the post-war…
The Road Not Taken in Eastern Europe
The end game approaches in Eastern Europe. Russian troops are now poised on Ukraine’s borders and prepared to strike. That war is imminent is not altogether surprising. Some sort of conflict over Russia’s former sphere…
The Winter of Our Discontent
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While it would be convenient to blame the current dysfunctional state of American politics solely on Donald Trump, the polarization of America did not start with the former President. He fueled it, to be sure,…