Only statistic that surprised me is a decrease in US power consumption, despite a substantial increase in population. That's a more telling statistic about growth than any financial analysis.
I was thinking the same thing. Now the question is, are we using less power because we are more efficient or because we are using less energy? If it is efficiency, then that is a huge thing since, as you noted, our population has gone up so even a minor increase in usage would be expected, but a decrease? If we are using less energy to do less work then it is another sign of the economy stagnating. Either way, interesting data.
