Will a Real Economist Please Stand Up.

The year to date tax revenue runs about 2.9% ahead of last year. The productivity for the 3rd quarter gained only 1.8%. The later relates to your standard of living while the former correlates with the US share of liquidity in the market. The 2.9 is positive but neither are good enough.

Productivity in a technology driven economy has a lot to do with band width. Spam so burdens the Internet and enterprise mail that billions are lost in productivity. The time spent waiting for the computer or purging spam, worse still reading it, is a total waste and a waste compounded by a million computers. Productivity does not have to mean carpal-tunnel syndrome, it may be robotics or just freedom from on-line frustration.

On that note, the "Air War" may get interesting real soon as 802.16 deploys this spring. If at all as advertised it comes with big band width and big range, just in time to rescue struggling ISPs with an immediate promise of VOIP that's voice on the Internet without the phone bill!