Its Technology, Stupid

We had a rather spirited discussion in a small group breakout late this morning session here at the Economics Bloggers Forum here in KC.  It centered on what really caused the recession.  The argument was made by Michael Mandel (formerly of Business Week) that we had very few real technological innovations introduced into our economy since 1998.  What is interesting to me is that this may partially explain why we are seeing no entrepreneurial job growth pulling us out of the recession.  In all past recessions it has been entrepreneurs who have kindled new growth.  The argument may be that there is no real base of new technology to build from to jump start a recovery.

The good news is that Bob Cringely asserts that there is a technology seedbed out there that may yet spur long-term growth.