>Castells argues that the slowdown of productivity has been concentrated in
>the so called service sector. Then he notes
>
>*the difficulty of measuring productivity in so called services. According
>tohe BLS productivity in banking has only improved by 2% a year. This seems
>to be a fantastic underestimate.
Seems, I know not seems!
I love this argument, which I've heard from the likes of Juliet Schor as well as Castells & Kudlow. How do they know? The BLS has had scores of people computing productivity figures for decades. Maybe they're wrong, but the case has to be made with more than impressionistic evidence. 2% a year is nothing to sneeze at, either.
>*mfg productivity growth rates have often reached so called Golden Age
>levels, esp. Japan, the US and to a lesser extent UK, suggesting that they
>have indeed assimilated new technologies (CAD, CAM) at a faster rate than
>France and Germany.
And also that they've outsourced a lot of stuff, like accounting and janitorial services, with very slow productivity growth. So manufacturing ends up looking very good, but average productivity doesn't.
Doug