It's the output gap, stupid: The nation's economic woes boil down to this. Compared with a healthy economy, about 7 million working-age people and 5 percent of the nation's industrial capacity are sitting idle, not producing what they could. The economy is growing again, but at a rate - less than 2 percent in recent months - that's too slow to keep up with a population that keeps increasing and workers who keep getting more efficient.This is the output gap, the divide between the amount the United States can produce and what it is actually producing. The gap, currently $900 billion, explains why we feel so miserable more than a year into what is technically classified as an economic recovery.There are some real pretty graphs to go along with that copy but in essence, that's about it. And the geniuses in the Obama cabinet - none of whom ever ran a private corporation - have yet to figure out that their own policies have made hiring new people a riverboat gamble. Business people being...(Read Full Post)