The resurgence of the American economy since 1995 has outrun all but the most optimistic expectations. Economic forecasting models have been seriously off track and growth projections have been revised to reflect a more sanguine outlook only recently.1 It is not surprising that the unusual combination of more rapid growth and slower inflation in the 1990s has touched off a strenuous debate am…
By the mid-1990s, however, new data began to reveal an acceleration of growth accompanying a transformation of economic activity. This shift in the rate of growth coincided with a sudden, substantial, and rapid decline in the prices of semiconductors and computers. After 1995 it appears there was a point of inflection; price declines abruptly accelerated from 15 to 28 percent annually. In the s…