Abstract The American economy changed rapidly since the World Wars as producers expanded new products and services in communication, computers and transportation. We kept track of this transformation through the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), a set of statistical constructs designed before these changes started. The national accounts stretched to accommodate these new and growing activities, but efforts to fit them into our measurement of national product and of economic growth have not yet borne fruit. I argue in this paper that our current economic data fail to describe accurately the path of growth in our new economy. They fail to reveal that the United States is consuming its capital stock now and will suffer later, rather like killing the family cow to have a steak dinner.

中文翻译：

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美国经济增长中的金融和无形资产：吃掉家庭奶牛

摘要 随着生产者在通信、计算机和运输领域扩展新产品和服务，美国经济自世界大战以来发生了迅速变化。我们通过国民收入和产品账户 (NIPA) 跟踪这种转变，这是在这些变化开始之前设计的一组统计结构。国民账户不断扩大以适应这些新的和不断增长的活动，但将它们纳入我们对国民产品和经济增长的衡量标准的努力尚未取得成果。我在本文中认为，我们当前的经济数据未能准确描述我们新经济的增长路径。他们没有透露美国现在正在消耗其资本存量，以后会受苦，就像杀了家里的牛吃牛排一样。