Europe is not in economic decline; by the measures that matter most it is keeping up with the United States.

Added to korrents 10 May 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

Where this collides

• Cannot both be true

  Europe's dominant cultural spirit is anti-tech, anti-AI, anti-entrepreneurship, anti-business and anti-progress.

  Levels says Europe’s dominant cultural spirit is anti-tech, anti-business and anti-progress. Krugman says the decline story is American triumphalism and that by the measures that matter Europe is keeping up. They are answering the same question about the same continent and they answer it opposite ways.

• In tension with

  Europe cannot keep the world's strictest environmental and social rules, invest less than its competitors and run a more naive trade policy, and still expect to create jobs.

  Macron, from inside, warns that Europe cannot keep the strictest rules, invest less and trade more naively than its competitors and still create jobs. Krugman, visiting, says the underperformance story is largely a misperception. The Draghi report Krugman calls misleading is the document Macron is echoing.

• In tension with

  Europe must decide how big it wants its public sector to be: France's public spending at 58 percent of GDP is above the late Soviet Union's.

  Durov says Europe must decide how big it wants its public sector to be, and points out that France public spending is above the late Soviet Union as a share of GDP. Krugman says the European underperformance story is largely American triumphalism. The share of output the state moves and the standard of living it buys are two different numbers, and each man is holding up one of them.

• In tension with

  High electricity prices are what is killing European industrial competitiveness.

  Ritchie and Cochrane both hold that high electricity prices are killing European industrial competitiveness — one counting battery factory costs, the other counting votes. Krugman says Europe is keeping up with the United States by the measures that matter most. A continent can be losing its heavy industry and holding its living standards, which is roughly the position all three would have to accept.

Related korrents

Our reading — they may agree, disagree or merely touch the same thing. Closest first: a shared subject counts for most, then how near the wording is.

• Europe is an economic superpower, and at present it is the only democratic one. PKPaul Krugman10 May 2026EuropeAmerica
• Europe's housing shortages are worse than America's, and Europeans do not discuss zoning as their cause at all. SHSamuel Hughes16 Jun 2026EuropeAmerica
• Hispanic immigrants are integrating into the American mainstream faster than the European immigrants of the nineteenth century did. JMJohn Mearsheimer17 Nov 2023EuropeAmerica
• Partnering with Russia was a strategic mistake for Beijing, because it is the United States and Europe that hold the markets and the technology. DWDan Wang4 Mar 2023EuropeAmerica
• Small European states can demand a war with Russia only because they assume somebody else will fight it. BMBranko Milanovic26 Aug 2026EuropeAmerica

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