ABSTRACT
Many have noted that the US economy is much more service-oriented now than it was in the past. Services—educational services, legal services, financial services—are generally not as cyclical as manufactured goods, such as automobiles or airplanes. Recessions hit manufacturing sectors quite hard. But in the service industries, business-cycle fluctuations have been typically small. So maybe The Long Boom, with its greater stability, is due to the economy becoming more service-oriented. The inflation rate has been very low and very stable during The Long Boom, much lower and much more stable than during the years immediately prior to The Long Boom. A very common explanation of The Long Boom is that the US economy has been lucky with respect to the shocks hitting the economy.
