Skeptics of the 1995-2012 rise in the average rate of productivity growth say that: the difficulties of the dot.com companies in 2001 will eventually undermine productivity. the improved growth performance of the U.S. economy between 1995 and 2012 resulted from shrewd monetary policy and not from increases in productivity. between 1995 and 2012 the economy moved below its natural rate of unemployment and paid the price in the form of accelerating inflation. it is too soon to judge whether the high productivity advances between 1995 and 2012 are long lasting or transitory