Larry Mishel – for those not in with the details of the Washington Swamp’s celebrity culture – has for some decades been the guiding light behind the Economic Policy Institute. He’s standing down as the president after some 30 years there. This is a good thing, and there’s even a possibility that economic debates are going to get better as a result.

You will, almost certainly, have seen the chart that he and Jared Bernstein created, supposedly showing that productivity is rising faster than hourly compensation: