ted,
per capita GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.1% in the US during the ten years to 2003, and at 1.8% in the euro zone.
It is true that the per capita figures are widely under-reported, but there is a bit more to it.
As far as the employment pipeline, you have on one side people coming in (inexperienced, sometime unqualified) who only over time reach their productive peak. In the EU, there is nearly no population growth, little immigration, so there are few people coming in at the entry level.
In the US, there is slightly higher birth rate, much higher immigration (legal and illegal), so there is a flood of people entering at the entry level, and even with this "handicap" (from the point of view of growth of GDP per capita) US outperforms EU.
As far as blaming the "stimulus", I think it is misplaced as well. The US has outperformed EU over most time periods since early 1980s, during the time when deficits were rising or shrinking (and there were about 3 full cycles of that in the time period if I counted right).
Joe |
