Europe

Europe has taken a beating in the last fifteen years. At the heart of our demise was the subprime crisis. Rather ironically, it wasn’t the disease, but rather the medicine that seems to have done most of the damage, and who knew how quantitative easing works anyway? Since 2009, the US economy has grown by 50% more than Europe and the S&P500 has outperformed the Stoxx600 by 223%.

Of course, Brexit hasn’t helped (either side). But what else can explain these vastly different sets of fortune, because it’s not like we didn’t print a lot of money? The US has invested much more in research and development. There is less regulation and bureaucracy, taxes are lower, productivity is higher, consumption is even higher, and the median salary is one and a half times that in France.

Then there is technology and whereas they have Apple and Nvidia we have Sage and Philips. It gets even worse when it comes to the financial services industry. They have JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, whereas we used to have Dresdner Bank and Credit Suisse. The US is also energy-independent, the fertility rate is 2.05 children per woman compared to 1.52 in Europe, and the median age is almost five years younger.

What could possibly reverse such a prolonged, ingrained, and seemingly unsurmountable trend of US dominance over a declining Europe now and forever? Not much. In fact, the only thing we seem to have going for ourselves is that we have more holidays and we live longer. There is also the football. They have CONCACAF. We have the Champions League. I guess, that makes us good.