Word: booming
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...Krugman back in 1990, "is the single most important factor affecting our economic well-being." It was growth in productivity - most commonly measured as economic output per hour worked - during the Industrial Revolution that powered the rise of the West out of millenniums of stagnation. It was a productivity boom that ushered in America's postwar era of mass affluence...
...Until the mid-'90s, that is, when productivity growth rebounded, from about 1.5% a year to more than 2.5%. The engine apparently was the rise of the computer and the Internet. And the boom continued even after the technology bust of 2001. In 2006-07, productivity growth slumped to pre-1995 levels, before rebounding somewhat in the first half of this year. But year-to-year numbers can be confusingly noisy; it's the trend that matters. Gordon, who doesn't buy that computers and the Internet are nearly as economically significant as cars, electricity and their ilk, thinks...
...idea took off: there are now more than 65 million 401(k) accounts, which allow participants to invest in stocks and bonds, often with matching funds from employers--all at a lower cost than the pension plans that 401(k)s replaced. The accounts helped spark a financial-industry boom, funneling billions from under retirement savers' mattresses into mutual funds and the stock market...
...debt varies by nation, it's become a troubling factor for households and companies throughout the developed world. "Banks are being told to lend money to people who have already surpassed their borrowing capacity - and being told to do so under the same terms applied during the credit boom. It's not a good idea." But so far, no one seems to have come up with a better...
...that boom has come to a halt. On Oct. 13 Opel suspended production at Eisenach for three weeks to help sell off a stockpile of excess cars, hundreds of which crowd a parking lot inside the factory complex. Opel electrician Katrin Huber, 29, isn't happy about this vacation. "The plant shutdown is going to cost me more than $400," she says. "But worse is that we just don't know what the future holds. I'm afraid that the plant could close...