In our society, ''mature'' is a euphemism for getting old.
Consultants deride a mature market as one without much potential.
And a mature economy, as economists use the term, can no longer sustain the high growth rates of younger, spryer economies. Indeed, as growth slowed in the 1970s and 1980s, mature was exactly the term that many economists applied to the U.S. Boy, were they wrong. There's nothing old about the U.S. economy today. Instead, there's been an explosion of creativity and entrepreneurial vigor that puts U.S. competitors to shame. There is growing evidence that the U.S. economy is in the early stages of a powerful new wave of innovation.