National Bureau of Economic Research’s Gordon: U.S. Economy May “Sputter Out”

“The U.S.’s best 250 years are behind it, Northwestern University professor Robert Gordonwrites in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, saying economic growth may gradually “sputter out.”

Gordon outlines how there was virtually no expansion before 1750 — before the American Revolution led to the creation of the U.S. The entire period since then “could well turn out to be a unique episode in human history,” he wrote in the paper published this week.

That questions the “nearly universal” view promoted by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow and others since the 1950s that “economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever,” said Gordon, who is based in Evanston, Illinois, and turns 72 next week.”

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