The Washington Post
September 28, 2012
Presidential candidates, Congress and the Fed love to talk about what they can do to help the economy grow. Lower taxes, higher taxes. More regulation, less regulation. Smarter immigration policy. Quantitative easing. Everyone has a pet solution. But what if the economy is already all grown up?
“There was virtually no economic growth before 1750, suggesting that the rapid progress made over the past 250 years could well be a unique episode in human history,” writes Robert J. Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University. “Economic growth may not be a continuous long-term process that lasts forever.”
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