Europe’s Remarkable Achievement

14/11/2013

By Paul Krugman

After sort-of decent growth in the second quarter, Europe’s austerity advocates rushed to proclaim that their policies were bearing fruit. After the latest numbers, which show growth stalling, not so much.

And bear in mind that we are now closing in on the 6th anniversary of the start of Europe’s recession.

Here’s what I find amazing. Compare industrial production with data from the 1930s, which can be found here. When I compare the Eurozone now with Europe then, I get this chart:

My joke slogan for Obama has been, “It’s not as bad as the Great Depression!” But Europe can’t even claim that. At this point it’s just as bad as the Great Depression — and where European economies were recovering strongly by this point in the 30s, they’re stalling now.

Doing worse than the 30s; that’s a remarkable achievement.

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