The Last Chapter Problem

This is a syndicated repost courtesy of The Baseline Scenario. To view original, click here. Reposted with permission.
Like many analytically minded liberals, I’m good at identifying problems and less good at coming up with solutions – a common disease sometimes called the ‘last chapter problem.’ I recently finished reading The Reconnection Agenda by Jared Bernstein (which you can even download from his blog), which takes the opposite approach.
The problem he addresses is one that we all know about – inequality, stagnant real wages, the divergence between productivity gains and living standards, etc. Bernstein recalls a meeting with a group of insiders in 2014, when a pollster interrupted a discussion of the post-Great Recession economic recovery to say:
If you mention the word ‘recovery’ to people, they don’t know what you’re talking about. And they conclude you don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s not just that they feel disconnected from an economy that’s supposedly growing. It’s that they don’t think anyone understands or knows what to do about their situation.

This post was published at Wall Street Examiner by James Kwak ‘ October 29, 2016.