Chicken little told us that the sky was falling. Alan Greenspan and his cohorts at the Fed would have us believe it just might—what with the “irrational exuberance” of the capital markets and their increasing fear that inflation may soon rear its ugly head. I’m here to assure you that Chicken Little and Alan Greenspan have a lot in common; they fret for no good reason. The sky—that is, the U.S. economy—is just fine, thank you. In fact, it’s never been better—sturdy, resilient, and raring to grow. And it will remain that way for years and years to come if the government just manages to stay out of its way.
A version of this article appeared in the November–December 1999 issue of Harvard Business Review.