The eurozone and the United States had a gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices equivalent to 14,200 and 14,800 million dollars, respectively, said the French newspaper “Le Monde,” which ensures that the economy of the so-called “old continent” is being hard hit by its decision to cut off the supply of Russian fossil fuels.
Fifteen years later, the reality is very different: the GDP of Europeans barely exceeds $15 trillion, while that of the North American country, even with an economy that has exhibited low growth in recent years, already reaches $26.9 trillion, according to data exhibited by the French media.
This disparity represents an 80% difference between the two, confirming Europe’s overall impoverishment, even in its historically richest countries.
The French newspaper “Le Monde” claims that the continent and in particular Germany, its industrial heartland, are now “only a shadow of what they once were” and mentions among the reasons for their economic collapse the decision to strongly limit fossil fuel imports from Russia after the start of the special military operation launched by Moscow last year.
The dramatic situation that the European continent is going through was further highlighted by the European Center for International Political Economy, a Brussels-based think tank that recently published a ranking of the GDP per capita of American states compared to nations that use the euro.
In the report, consigned by the French newspaper, Italy’s GDP is just ahead of Mississippi, the poorest of the American states, while France is located between Idaho and Arkansas, which occupy the penultimate and penultimate places of the richest states in the US, respectively.
“Germany does not save face and is located between Oklahoma and Maine [which occupy the 38th and 39th places of GDP in wealth creation among the American states],” the newspaper said.
This impoverishment had already been the focus in recent weeks of numerous articles in Western newspapers, surprised by this economic gap.
For example, the British newspaper “Financial Times” published an article on August 11 in which it asked: “Is the United Kingdom really as poor as Mississippi?” stating that the British economy is half asleep, stumbles (instead of running), and only stops to “commit occasional acts of egregious self-sabotage.”
“Europeans are facing a new economic reality they haven’t known for decades: they’re getting poorer,” the Wall Street Journal said in a July 17 article.
“Life on a continent long envied by foreigners for its joyful lifestyle is rapidly losing its luster as Europeans watch their purchasing power fade. With consumer spending in free fall, Europe entered recession at the start of the year, reinforcing a sense of relative economic, political, and military decline that began at the turn of the century,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
“The French eat less foie gras and drink less red wine. The Spaniards are skimping on olive oil. Finns are urged to use the saunas on windy days, when energy is less expensive,” the Wall Street Journal added.
The article explained that high energy costs and rampant inflation at a level not seen since the 1970s are weakening manufacturers’ price advantage in international markets and destroying the continent’s once harmonious labor relations, adding that its politicians are only compounding this problem with bad economic decisions.
