PPI Chief Economist, Michael Mandel, discuses the challenges facing America’s economic recovery on Marketplace:
“After a number of incremental but positive indicators that have come out in the past couple of months — the so-called “green shoots” — today’s fourth quarter GDP was a reminder that our economy is still very fragile. Like a green shoot of a plant or a tree, our economy needs a lot of nurturing to really grow.
“Mike Mandel is the chief economic strategist for the Progressive Policy Institute. He says lower-than-expected GDP in the final three months of last year reflect an economy that’s “on the road to recovery,” but it’s a “slow, uneven recovery.”
“Mandel says we still haven’t solved a key underlying problem: We’re investing too little in increasing our productivity and too much on consumption. According to Mandel, we went into this recession too focused on consuming and neither public or private investment has been enough of a priority.”