The economic crosswinds sweeping across the continent threaten to stir into a perfect storm in the coming year as an unchained Trump sets his sights on Europe. In addition to levying new tariffs on everything from Bordeaux to Brioni (the president-elect’s favorite Italian suit-maker), the incoming leader of the free world is certain to reinforce his demand that NATO countries either pony up more cash for their own defense or lose American protection.
That means European capitals, already struggling to rein in surging deficits amid dwindling tax revenue, will face even greater financial strains, which could trigger further political and social upheaval.
Recessions and trade wars may come and go, but what makes this juncture so perilous for the continent’s prosperity has to do with the biggest inconvenient truth of all: the EU has become an innovation desert.
Though Europe has a rich history of eye-popping inventions, including scientific breakthroughs that gave the world everything from the automobile to the telephone, radio, television and pharmaceuticals, it has devolved into an also-ran.
Once synonymous with cutting-edge automotive technology, Europe today doesn’t have a single entry among the 15 bestselling electric vehicles. As former Italian Prime Minister and central banker Mario Draghi noted in his recent report on Europe’s flagging competitiveness, only four of the world’s top 50 tech companies are European.
If Europe remains on its current trajectory, its future will also be Italian: that of a decaying, if beautiful, debt-ridden, open-air museum for American and Chinese tourists.
New_Race9503 on December 19th, 2024 at 11:44 UTC »
Every couple of years it's a new 'apocalpyse' or a 'collapse'. I really wished journalists would turn it down a notch.
WhoAmIEven2 on December 19th, 2024 at 11:18 UTC »
Europe is not one single economy. Some countries struggle, some don't. Germany struggles, while Poland does great and we in Sweden are somewhere in the middle but more towards the positive side since our dip 2 years ago (just perfect. We are "landet lagom" after all!).
senza-nome on December 19th, 2024 at 11:12 UTC »
> Put simply, Europeans don’t work enough. An average German employee, for example, works more than 20 percent fewer hours than their American counterparts.
I am not the smartest tool but this statement confuses me. If the problem is that we don’t innovate how can this be caused by people not working enough? Isn’t more a problem of a company leadership not going in the right direction?
What’s the point of working 20% more on a product or service that is not competitive?