Is the U.S. economy growing, slowing, or running in place? Recent news on the state of American commerce is mixed, with massive layoffs at Ford and GM—roughly 30,000 jobs each—balanced against strong unemployment numbers (4.7% in January) and retail sales figures (up 0.8% from December ’05). 
 
Shadow stats 
 
A Feb. 13 cover article in Business Week argued that “industrial age” statistical-gathering methods are masking true economic growth. The article said billions of dollars invested in training, R&D and brand building aren’t adequately tracked. So is this economy doing better than it looks? More important ...