On the Economy: Maintaining growth rate becomes more difficult

So what are the long-run trends at work in our local economy?

The first conclusion that becomes obvious as we examine 1969 to 1994 data for the Northern Colorado economy is that as our economy becomes larger, it becomes harder to maintain growth rates expressed in percentage terms. As the base from which we grow becomes larger each year, it becomes much more difficult to grow by a given percentage rate.

High growth from a $1 million economy is easier than growth from a $1 billion economy. Opportunities to locally substitute for imports become harder to find, and efficiencies of…