Just a quick diary because I think there’s a point I haven’t seen made comparing the economic fallout of the virus in the US vs the EU.: The US economy contracted by over 2.5 times that of the EU economy in Q2.
We’ve all seen the charts about how much worse the US has handled COVID than Europe by cases and deaths. Despite beginning on the same trajectory, the EU has mostly gotten the spread under control, while the US has failed to bend the curve.
However, I have not yet seen a chart comparing US economic contraction vs. European economic contraction. If I knew how to create a chart like that, it would tell the story of Trump and the Republicans’ total failure on the economy.
This week, we learned that the US economy suffered a historic collapse. As NPR calledt, 3 months of Hell: US economy drops 32.9% in worst GDP report ever.
Economic contraction is to be expected when you shut down the economy, as with COVID deaths, it didn’t have to be this bad. Trump will try to blame China for our economic problems, but a comparison with the EU shows what a difference even marginally competent leadership can make for an economy in the face of a pandemic.
In fact, The EU economy shrunk by just 12.1% in Q2.
Got that?
US botches response to pandemic, economy shrinks by 32.9%.
EU deals with pandemic response, economy shrinks by just 12.1%.
Ain’t no way to blame our economic collapse on China when the EU handled the same problem so much better than Trump and the Republicans.
UPDATE: h/t Disraeli — apparently the US rate is annualized and the EU rate is not, so my comparison is wrong. i can’t find the EU annualized, though, to compare. Will try to find that and either update the diary or take it down.