The following graph shows that the average hourly wage of US production workers rose at a very steady rate from 1964 to 1982 when it abruptly changed and has been growing at half the prior rate ever since. The effective annual compound interest rate from 1964 to 1982 was 6.50% and since then has been 3.24%. Why? (The wage data are plotted on a natural log scale because that shows a constant percentage increase as a straight line.)
