But it seems likely that government policy, which has pushed up the proportion of youngsters going to university by nearly a quarter over the past ten years, and plans to increase it from its current 43% to 50% by 2010, has also had an effect.

ECONOMIST: Education economics

Total government spending increased by a 3.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, after declining in nine of the past ten quarters.

FORBES: The Revised Third Quarter GDP--Better, But Not By Much

But as weak as housing construction has been since the last quarter of 2008 (see below), over the past ten years we have started about 1.23 million houses a year while adding only about 920, 000 households per year.

FORBES: Is The Housing Recovery For Real?