Jinn?
According to critics, an eavesdropper, constantly striving to go behind the curtains of heaven in order to steal divine secrets. May grant wishes.
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2004-May-29 ![[this day]](http://radio.weblogs.com/0103811/images/dailyLinkIcon.gif)
Productivity in America
Bruce Bartlett:
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For those unfamiliar with the Dallas Fed report, it is much more than just a financial statement with the usual tables of debits and credits, assets and liabilities. Some years ago, the Dallas Fed started making the first half of the report an essay on some interesting topic. Among those of recent years are essays on the dynamics of income distribution, the declining cost of living, free trade, and mass customization.
These essays are always chock full of statistics, creatively presented, that usually challenge the conventional wisdom. A hallmark of the report is the long-time series of data. The data, presented this way, are important as we are all myopic to some extent and tend to focus our attention primarily on the very recent past, often extrapolating into the future on the basis of what is really a very small amount of information. Therefore, it is helpful to see trends in historical perspective.
This year's report looks at the issue of productivity. ... At the simplest level, productivity is about doing more with less — less labor, less energy, less capital. It is because each worker today produces far more than those in the past that we have a higher standard of living. According to the report, output per [American] person is about 25 times higher today that it was in 1776.