The WEF explores the question, ‘The US often prides itself on being the world leader on bringing the most economic benefits to its population. But is it true?’

Source: Is Europe outperforming the US? – Agenda – The World Economic Forum

This is a fascinating article that looks at counter-intuitive data. Yes, on some measures Europe does seem to be outperforming the US.

However, it’s necessary to examine the data carefully, especially the impact of inequality and geographical or national differences in Europe.

For me, what’s clear is that if Europe really got its act together and started to operate in European rather than national best interests, then Europe’s performance would steam ahead. Since 2008, Germany has been a barrier to European growth, insisting on rigid adherence to the ‘fiscal constraint’ By comparison, now that Germany is struggling with the cost of refugees, we see moves to loosen the fiscal targets.

Sadly, the US remains a very divided society. Also US growth has been contrained by government debt ceilings.

Take a hard look at Figure 3: Growth, real average income, for bottom 90%. The trend over time of the bottom 90% chartered by country is very powerful.

Thoughts?