Surging costs in 3 sectors is the real productivity problem

Washington

OUR thinking about productivity is cockeyed, according to a new economic report. We are ignoring the real productivity problem: surging costs for health care, housing and education. We need to understand this argument, because it just might be correct.

Unless you have been vacationing on Mars, you know that productivity is the catchword for economic efficiency - and also that we are facing a quiet productivity crisis. Gains in productivity have slowed to a crawl or stagnated. Unless they are revived, prospects for higher living standards will fade or vanish.