We’ve asserted in recent columns that the U.S., the state and the Northern Colorado economies are growing, although not very rapidly. Let’s look at some of the actors and the indexes affecting and measuring these economies and see what must change before these economies can grow in a quicker, healthier manner. We’ll focus on the U.S., Colorado and local economies, in that order.

U.S. Gross Domestic Product has expanded at an average of 2.4 percent per quarter since the recession ended in 2009. This is the weakest post-recession growth rate since at least the 1940s. After the early 1980s double-dip, supply-side recessions, the rate was 5.7 percent; it was 2.7 percent after the 2002 recession. So we can conclude that the U.S. economy must grow more rapidly to create more jobs.

But the Great Recession was a demand-side recession caused by a decrease in consumer spending, not a supply-side recession caused by energy cost increases. Consumers aren’t buying. Homeowners and families, the biggest consumers, are deleveraging from the housing boom, when they leveraged their biggest asset and pulled money out to buy, buy, buy. The Great Recession pushed many homeowners under water on their mortgages and