GD II: How large is the unused economic capacity?

I must be up to at least 30 Crackpot points in my recent economics threads, but I just can't help myself.

I swear, I'm going to stop soon, just not quite yet.

In past recessions, and even recently, I've read of estimates of the unused capacity of the US economy, and how much must be done to move us closer to using all of our capacity.

So today's question is whether the US economy is the right denominator.

What if we're now so entangled economically with China that the right denominator is not the US workforce, but rather the US and Chinese (and perhaps Indian) workforce? That's a rather bigger number; it could absorb a lot of stimulus ...

Crank roll:

1. Lewis and Einhorn: repairing the financial world
2. The role of the deadbeats
3. Complexity collapse
4. Disintermediating Wall Street
5. The future of the publicly traded company
6. Marked!
   
7. Mass disability and income skew
8. The occult inflation of shrinking quality