The great economic slowdown: How narrowed technical progress brought static wages, sky-high wealth, and much discontent

• Main Authors: PHELPS, Edmund, HOON, Hian Teck, ZOEGA, Gylfi
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Asset prices; Decline in population growth; Economic inequality; Economic productivity; Endogenous labor force; Global economic slowdown; Global interest rates; Impact of COVID-19; Labour market; Public debt; International Economics
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2761
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This book charts the fall of productivity growth and the rise of inequality within global economies and societies. Set out through a series of economic models, the impact of falling rates of productivity growth, particularly in the USA, are examined in relation to lowering interest rates, the lifting of the stock market, and an increasingly unequal distribution of wealth. The economic impact of COVID-19, including the increased tendency to work from home and renewed public debt pressures, are contextualised within broader issues of wage suppression and discontent within the labor force to highlight how average workers have been left behind. The rise of China and the geopolitical tensions that it has created is also discussed.