[jpfromlondon]

>if you use PPP prices ...

it was still on the uptrend until 2020 when switching off the economy squashed all growth and not just in Britain but other major continental economies too, Germany has actually been in and out of recession multiple times since.

2016 added some turbulence to domestic politics and econ but until then our recovery from the GFC had been fast, occasionally faster than the rest of the G7.

[ahartmetz]

Germany isn't doing great, but these current recessions are low grade. Nothing like mid 90s and mid 2000s, unemployment data: https://www.wsi.de/de/erwerbsarbeit-14617-arbeitslosenquoten...

[pjc50]

> 2020 when switching off the economy squashed all growth

The exception here is the US, again. And what did they do differently? Massive QE and "helicopter money". Anti-austerity worked extremely well for growth, even if the debt went up.

[jpfromlondon]

Counter-cyclic fiscal policy and QE does work, absolutely, but it's likely dependent on size of economy because in most cases austerity works better...but in most cases the economies are much smaller than America's; Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Greece (since austerity was forced upon it), HK, Britain could likely've been more austere during the GFC and seen more growth.

Then again although not comparable to America's it's possible that the British economy was/is large enough to sustain even more liberal fiscal policy but given the dependence on import and that it's primarily a service economy I doubt it.

America is truly exceptional.

[inigyou]

I thought austerity failed every time it was tried. When didn't it fail?

[jpfromlondon]

The examples I gave, primarily post GFC, except in the case of Greece the caveat is that although initially caused by the GFC the sovereign debt crisis marks it as distinct from the other economies listed.

HK under JJ Cowperthwaite (1961 to 1971), but more generally since then and especially pre '97.

[ben_w]

Singapore, I'm told, from someone who lives there. I don't really follow their politics so take this with a pinch of salt appropriate for hearing things on the grapevine.