Growth is good

摘要

One of the unchanging "laws" governing the U.S. paper industry is that growth in paper demand closely tracks growth in gross domestic product (GDP). There are upswings and downswings in demand, of course, but over time that iron rule holds true. New applications for paper are few and U.S. per capita paper consumption is already very high, so U.S. paper demand rises and falls in lock step with GDP. Of course this is not true in developing areas, such as Asia, where per capita paper consumption is rising sharply, but selling paper in America is basically a slow-growth industry. That's why the paper industry has a tremendous stake in U.S. economic growth, which has recently been in the range of 2 percent annually—anemic by historic standards. Some might argue that this is inevitable for a mature economy. However, there is a compelling argument that the U.S. economy could grow much faster. A one or two percentage point change in GDP growth would produce enormous benefits.