America Is Struggling With Long-Term Economic Rot

``... evidence is mounting that the Great Recession may have drawn attention away from a slow rot that has been eating the U.S. economy since the turn of the century... Those two trends are slowing productivity and reduced labor-force participation... .The years before the recession also saw other disturbing developments. For example, the rate of high-growth startup formation fell during that period... The evidence suggests that in High Tech, high-growth young firms play an especially critical role in job creation and productivity growth...However, since 2000 the High Tech sector and publicly traded firms have exhibited a decline in dynamism. The number of IPOs has fallen in the post-2000 period, and those that have entered have not exhibited the same rapid growth as earlier cohorts.''