Have I Said This Before?

Over the past few weeks the evidence has been mounting that much of the current spike in unemployment is structural, despite its abruptness - the productivity numbers back this up. Companies are realizing latent gains from IT and a shift in cultural norms that allows a much lower level of human service in the services industry, with the downturn having dissolved some of the stickiness of employment,

Sooooo - next half-baked and more macro-ish theory: the current structure of the economy does not distribute income widely enough to sustain the domestic consumer demand upon which the economy demands, even with American's willingness to undersave for their future requirements, and even at the current level of interest rates, they do not have the means to acquire and service more debt. In addition, the wage differential with the developing countries is still so wide that an export-driven manufacturing economy doesn't seem likely, although Germany has managed it, albeit for a smaller base and with more support for industrial training.