by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
Mises.org
Every policy discussion, in the media or the political arena, touches inevitably on the sensitive issue of economic growth. Over the past year, these discussions have revolved primarily around the sluggish growth experienced by European economies, Japan, the U.S., and even China. A recent VOX article tries to identify some of the possible reasons for this slow growth, i.e. present eight existing theories for what it calls “the big puzzle in economics today”. Although some of these theories contain a grain of truth, the discussion is marred by several erroneous premises and incorrectly identified causes. To quote Samuel Beckett’s characters, these theories are a fruitful exercise in “blaming on [our] boots the faults of [our] feet.”