Prof Mandell,

I am confused about a point. How are we taking this as a good criteria to judge the economy ?

Productivity will obviously increase if we move all manufacturing jobs to OEM and keep only hi tech work....but what about the produce as such ?

what about unemployment ?

Michael,

I still have the following question :

You recently wrote that the MFP for the last 3 years in the US was the best since 1967 or something. The MFP growth from 2002-04 was much better than 1996-1999.

If MFP is the best measure of the health of an economy, :

1) Does this mean that the economy today is the best in the last 37 years?
2) Does it mean that the economy today is much healthier than in the late 1990s, despite the better GDP, job growth, consumer confidence, etc. of that time? How so?

Hi Kartik

Productivity data tends to bounce around a lot, so it's best averaged over a decade or so. And yes, I would say that the economy over the past decade is the best that it's been since the 1960s.

And addressing USD's point. Productivity gains with rising unemployment is not a good thing...however, the current level of unemployment is relatively low, and the U.S. seems to have done a better job of generating new jobs than countries like Germany, which have a much lower productivity growth rate.

hi i am doing a report in my society and environment class about economics and would like to know a few things like; how the performance of our economy today compares to its past performance?, who are the winners and losers in the economy today, and what can the government do to help people disadvantaged by our current economic situation?. if you could please write back a.s.a.p for my assignment is due on the 4th of september

yours sincearly courtney.