Here’s a Realistic Plan to Jump-Start U.S. Growth

Two MIT economists have come out with a big, bold plan for reviving U.S. economic growth. Done right, it just might work.

Slowing growth creates a lot of problems. It engenders despair by making people less likely to be richer than their parents. It might exacerbate wealth inequality. It creates a zero-sum world where people must fight over a smaller pie. But speeding it up is hard to do in a sustained way. Improving regulation or trade policy can produce at best a one-time, short-lived bump. In the long run, growth has to come from technological progress, and relatively little is known about how to accelerate innovation.