In 2011 Cowen published a digital pamphlet in which he argued that since the 1973 oil-price shock, America had experienced a hidden crisis of lost growth that would be resolved only by the development of new technology. He called this period the “Great Stagnation”, and he proposed a cultural solution rather than an economic one: raise the social... See more

Thiel’s view has been echoed by the economist Tyler Cowen, who believes that the U.S. has largely been stagnant in scientific and technological progress since the 1970s. In 1969, man landed on the Moon; by 1976, the supersonic airliner flew passengers between New York and London. As the stagnation hypothesis went, the digital revolution over the... See more