Reports of America’s Decline Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

 

6/30/13

 

A certain type of pundit has always been drawn to the idea that Americas best days are behind it. That tendency went viral in the commentariat after the global financial crisis, with chin-strokers around the world gravely intoning about the end of Washington Consensus and the inexorable rise of Asia and the BRICs.

 

(Snip)

 

Via Meadia has tended to be more optimistic than most on Americas prospects. Yes, America faces real headwinds to full recovery, but its healthy demographics, its resilient and deceptively adaptive political system, its vibrant entrepreneurialism, and now its very promising domestic energy sector suggest that the case for gloom has, as always, been grossly overstated.

 

Dan Drezner, who it must be said never was a gloom-and-doom type himself, has penned an excellent essay in the UK Spectator very much along these lines. A taste:

 

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the United States has actually been deleveraging from the bubble years of the past decade. Yes, millions of households were in foreclosure in America three years ago but taking the pain then has allowed recovery now. While commentators have focused on rising government debt, US households and companies have been tackling their own. According to the OECD, the debt-to-income ratio for American households has fallen from a pre-crisis 137 per cent to 116 per cent by the end of last year. That figure is now lower than European household indebtedness. Britain is at 160 per cent.

There are a lot more pithy comparative statistics to be found in the piece. Its very much worth a read.

 

(Snip)