In a nutshell, here's what's wrong with the economy

The red bars represent the "output gap," which is the difference between what an economy is producing and what it could be producing. The bigger the gap, the lower the growth.

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein sums up the dilemma:

It shows ideas that aren't making it to market, goods that aren't being produced, factories that aren't being used, progress that isn't being made. I think it's easy for people to assume the economy is just a problem for the unemployed, but it's not. It's a problem for all of us.