As Fed normalizes policy, economy’s ‘new normal’ is anything but.

The Great Recession is over. More people are working than ever before. Unemployment is back to pre-recession lows. Average housing prices are at record highs. So is the stock market.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it, too, was moving on, preparing finally to whittle away its huge $4.5 trillion portfolio of bonds that it bought to stimulate the economy. Although other anti-recession policies remain, Wednesday’s move puts the Fed on its final staircase in a return to normal.

But normal isn’t what it used to be. Economists foresee dramatically slower growth in the decades ahead because the previous natural