His faith in the productivity miracle may have blinded him to the dangers of excessive monetary growth.

ECONOMIST: Alan Greenspan

The awkward fact remains that if you leave out all durables, not just computers, the productivity miracle is still missing.

ECONOMIST: Productivity on stilts

He predicted that the Japanese productivity miracle would transform the world economy.

ECONOMIST: The unacknowledged giant

Combine the gross value-added figure with the declining share of resources, and you might assume finance has enjoyed a productivity miracle over the past 20 years.

ECONOMIST: The banks' contribution to the economy has been overstated

There remains precious little evidence of an American productivity miracle.

ECONOMIST: The revolutionary spirit

The only possible economic justification for Mr Greenspan's views is that the new economy has produced a productivity miracle: a permanent increase in the underlying rate of productivity growth that is capable of being sustained through a downturn.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

If community spirit helped to create the miracle of Japanese productivity, the bully-boys who destroy it could be doing more harm than they realise.

ECONOMIST: Gang sackings | The