Why growth will fall: William D. Nordhaus reviews The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The US Standard of Living Since the Civil War by Robert J. Gordon. The big puzzle in economics today: Why is the economy growing so slowly? How America lost its mojo: U.S. dynamism is in the dumps — Americans are less likely to switch jobs, move to another state, or create new companies than they were 30 years ago (or 100 years ago), so what’s going on? Neil Irwin on what’s going right, and wrong, in the U.S. economy. The forgotten state: Mike Konczal reviews The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism by Yuval Levin; and American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson (and more).
From Democracy, a series of contributors take stock of where we’ve come in one part of the economy, and what’s left to be done. Eduardo Porter on the case for more government and higher taxes. Time to borrow: Paul Krugman on the overwhelming case for deficit spending. Mike Konczal on why we should never pay down our $17 trillion debt — just ask the IMF: Our money is better spent elsewhere, for a few simple reasons. The introduction to Public Debt, Inequality, and Power: The Making of a Modern Debt State by Sandy Brian Hager.
Larry Summers on what you need to know about the next recession (starring Donald Trump). Roughly 70 per cent of the economists polled said a Clinton victory in November would be positive for growth in the US, compared with just under 14 per cent for Trump. The economy will probably be pretty good on election day. How can America’s leaders foster broad prosperity? The path to prosperity is blue.
