Word: surplus
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Fear not, surplus-watchers...
...productivity growth is one of the Big Three variables - along with economic growth and government spending - in those glorious 10-year surplus projections that make George W. Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut possible to swallow fiscally. And yes, productivity growth slowed in the last quarter of 2000 to 2.4 percent, compared to a whopping 4.3 figure for 2000 overall...
...even if this slowdown lasts for 10 years, 2.4 percent a year falls rather neatly into the Congressional Budget Office's admirably conservative economic projections that it plugs into its surplus forecasts. Heck, compared to the pre-New Economy years, before office technology and Internet efficiencies started to infiltrate Old Economy businesses, it's pretty darn good...
...Overall, the Bush White House can feel free to use Thursday's numbers as further evidence that a tax cut is needed, without shooting itself in the foot over surplus projections and fiscal responsibility. As Alan Greenspan told the Senate, productivity gains "show few signs of abating" and "should support growth of the economy over time...
...image as the maestro of monetary policy--and his remarks last week to the Senate Budget Committee at first seemed no exception. In a well-prepared statement, he reported on the current state of the economy and presented his conclusions on how to deal with ever-increasing surplus projections. He affirmed that the federal debt could be paid off sooner than expected, raising the question of what to do with the remaining surplus. To avoid "sub-optimal performance by our capital markets," the government should "eschew private asset accumulation" which usually leads to "surplus-lowering policy initiatives"--in other words...