America's disappointing economic recovery

``According to HSBC, average US growth in the seven years from the previous peak was 3.5 per cent after 1981, 3.1 per cent after 1990, 2.1 per cent after 2000 and 1.1 per cent since 2007. The direction is unmistakable. Some economists are even talking of a "great reset" that will require the US to adjust downwards to Japan-style growth. That is probably too gloomy... Yet the growth outlook remains checked by a very un-American sense of pessimism. If, as expected, US growth rebounds in the next two quarters, Ms Yellen may have little choice but to raise rates in September or shortly afterwards. America's troublingly low labour force participation rate gives her little leeway to do otherwise. ''