Ryan Avent on the consequences of the latest downturn:
Another Nobelist, James Heckman, has warned of deterioration in the educational levels of successive generations and pointed out (PDF) that the high school graduation rate in America actually peaked in the late 1960s and has since declined. One doesn't have to look very hard to find other potential limiting factors: rapid growth in congestion on transportation systems, poor broadband coverage relative to other developed nations, and so on.What seems clear is that at no time in the living memory of working Americans has the economy gone through a recession like thisdeep, and with a jobless recovery. It will influence society and culture for a generation.