Via Calculated Risk and Brad DeLong here’s a look at capacity utilization in the United States of America:
This, incidentally, illustrates why people who say that it’s not possible for deficit spending to stimulate the economy because “the money has to come from somewhere” are mistaken. There are, right now, people not working who could be working. And there is productive capital standing idle that could be put to use. We have the capacity to produce more—to generate more wealth—than we currently are.
At the same time, call me crazy but isn’t there a long-term downward trend in this data series? Why would that be? This seems obvious enough that someone must have researched it.
Previous in TP Yglesias
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