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

Added to korrents 7 Sept 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.

Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.

• America is a vastly richer country than Europe DHDavid Heinemeier Hansson9 Dec 2025EuropeAmerica
• American overregulation and labor-market rigidity make elevators far more common in Europe than in the US. JBJosh Barro28 Jun 2026EuropeAmerica
• Americans are largely unaware that they are ruled by people who are obsessed with Europe. NSNoah Smith18 Oct 2026EuropeAmerica
• Americans have listened too long to European culture, and the American spirit is suspected of being timid and imitative RERalph Waldo Emerson31 Aug 1837EuropeAmerica
• By PPP there are three economic superpowers—the United States, China, and the EU—with China clearly largest and the US and EU roughly co-equal. PKPaul Krugman19 Sept 2026EuropeAmerica

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