Commerce Department revised its growth data last month ... the economy grew much slower over the last three years than we had previously thought

Economy Goes From Bad to Worse | By Dean Baker | t r u t h o u t | Columnist | Monday 06 August 2007
...
The Commerce Department revised its growth data last month. It now shows the economy grew much slower over the last three years than we had previously thought. In particular, the new data implies productivity has been growing at just a 1.5 percent annual rate over the last three years. This is the same rate the economy experienced during the long productivity slowdown from 1973 to 1995. It is a full percentage point below the 2.5 percent growth rate from 1995 to 2004.
...
The fact productivity growth has now slowed is a very bad sign. It means the economy is not doing well by any measure. The argument for conservative economic policy was always that by giving people more incentive to work and invest, productivity would grow more rapidly, and that this would benefit everyone in the long run. It turns out, even with the massive upward redistribution of income over the last quarter century, productivity is now growing at its slowest pace in the post-war period. In short, we are not seeing much growth and the growth we are seeing is going to those at the top.
...
... We should all want higher, more rapid productivity growth. But this does mean the policy of redistributing income upwards has been a clear failure, insofar as its goal was to increase economic growth ...