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theatlantic:

The Very Real Economic Dangers of an Aging America

In the future, U.S. growth will be slower. Recessions will be deeper. Recoveries will be weaker. And there’s exactly one thing to blame.

Demographics.

That’s the stark conclusion from James Stock and Mark Watson in this fascinating, and occasionally depressing, new paper. In fact, they say, the future is now. For the last few years, we’ve weathered the beginning of what demographers have called the grey tsunami. “Most of the slow recovery [in today’s job market] is attributable to a long-term slowdown in trend employment growth,” Stock and Watson write.

The authors blame two demographic demons for our uncertain future: (1) the plateau in the female labor force participation rate, and (2) the aging of the U.S. workforce. Their underlying logic is that without continued growth in female workers or a significant boost in population, employment and GDP growth will slow, leaving us vulnerable to recessions with “steeper declines and slower recoveries.” In such a future, jobless recoveries will be the only recoveries we know.

Read more. [Image: Peter Bell, Ryan Morris]