Productivity and the New Economy

Abstract

I am honored to be here tonight and would like to compliment the Atlanta Fed for a very topical, important conference. We have lost focus on productivity in the last year, but of all the economics variables that one can imagine, I think productivity is the single most important. It is the one that determines how living standards evolve in the long run, impacts the financial health of the various trust funds that we use to fund entitlement spending, affects the budget status, currency valuations, stock market valuations, and many other things. If you were the leader of a country and had to pick one statistic that you would like to be favorable, I think it would be productivity.