[hookahboy]

This reads like a re-telling of Atlas Shrugged, dressed up for the 21st century but the causality runs from lack of government spending throughout the decades after the Great Financial Crisis. The EU deliberately chose to starve itself of government spending while the US swore off austerity after a very short period. The net result is a debt-to-GDP ratio for the EU around 89% while the US is at about 124%. So for all the clutching pearls about innovation and anti-capitalism, it really comes down to whether the state is prepared to inject demand into the economy via deficits - the US decided it was OK and the EU (mostly Germany) stubbornly stick to their "Schwarz Null" policy of balanced budgets.

Contrary to this thread, the EU needs more productive investment from governments, not less. And while we are it, the dystopian hellhole that the megacap growth tech companies have created in the US (and dominate valuations for the broad US indices) is something the EU should pat itself on the back for having missed.