Economic Peril for U.S. is Low Productivity: Could Technology Turnaround the Economy, Again?

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The mortgage crisis and credit squeeze are serious albeit short term problems, but are not the most critical, says Andrew Bernard, an economics professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

The big issue is the lack of productivity in the U.S. which is growing at a meager 1 percent. 
Professor Bernard says that it was the IT and communications revolution of the 90's which brought productivity to nearly 3 percent. 

If technology can again work its magic, and productivity rises to 2 percent or over, things should be fine, he says. If productivity stagnates, the prospects for the economy is not good.

Is the IT revolution over? Are the efficiencies of computing played out, or could another technology era raise productivity?  We shall see.

--- Andy Plesser