Widgets & Productivity

(1) Lots of questions raised by weak productivity. (2) The easy answer is that output is underestimated. (3) Hard to measure output in services. (4) More likely explanation: Productive companies need more sales. (5) Too much capacity belies under-investment thesis. (6) The big shocker: No growth in factory productivity over past five years. (7) Disconnect between strong consumer spending and weak consumer stocks. (8) Competition, excess capacity, and technological disruption. (9) Amazon rules the world.