To be sure, there are important issues concerning the reliability of statistical measurements. For example, some studies have shown that productivity growth in the United States might have been somewhat overestimated due inter alia to the incorrect measurement of gains in the terms of trade and tariff reductions.
General structural reform of the economy’s supply side, moreover, however desirable from the point of view of raising long-run growth rates, was always likely to play little role in the immediate recovery from a crisis of this  9  The early and clear analyses of these issues by Ian Macfarlane and, especially, Stephen Grenville were ahead of most in comprehending the situation.