Companies and industries rise and fall…fortunes are made and lost…jobs are created and destroyed by the millions. These are the headline-grabbing dramas of modern economic life. But, residing beneath the booms and busts is a more deeply consequential drama: the long-term growth of real gross domestic product (GDP). Often only apparent years after happening, shifts in long term growth rates are as momentous as they are subtle.

This new ebook examines the gathering evidence, in the wake of the great recession of 2008, that we are in the midst of one of these profound shifts. The disappointing performance of the U.S. economy in recent years—the slowest post recession expansion since World War II—may not be just a temporary setback after a severe downturn. It could be the “new normal.”