The Transatlantic Growth Gap
The key to the economic-performance gap between the US and the EU in the last three years is the resilience of private consumption by American households. How were US households able to reduce their debt burden during a period of high unemployment and almost no wage gains while sustaining consumption growth?
BRUSSELS – The global financial crisis that erupted in full force in 2008 affected Europe and the United States in a very similar way – at least at the start. On both sides of the Atlantic, economic performance tanked in 2009 and started to recover in 2010.