Europe grapples with its decline
Americans consumed by their country’s election cycle may be struck by the mood across the pond. In the apocalyptic rhetoric of Republicans, the American economy is the proverbial sick man of the West, hampered by rampant inflation, battered by tides of plundering illegal migrants and doomed by the leftist schemes of progressive elites.
But from many vantage points in Europe, the United States appears in enviable shape. The average U.S. worker makes more money and has more disposable income than the average European. U.S. companies are more productive and the U.S. tech sector is world-leading, far outpacing its relatively weak counterparts in Europe. In 2008, the collective economies of the euro zone were roughly at parity in size with that of the United States. Last year, U.S. GDP was close to double that of the euro zone countries.
The hard realities of European slump and stagnation underpinned a mammoth report released last week by Mario Draghi, a former technocratic Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank chief for much of the past decade. The 400-page document on the “future of European competitiveness” was published on the invitation of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and therefore is being received as a kind of declaration of continental intent. Whether its vision can be implemented is another matter.
www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-AA1qKtso
h/t ProfessorOfFinance