This chart is making the rounds today, so I might as well join in the fun. It shows how well the U.S. economy has recovered from the recession compared to Great Britain. The Tory approach in Great Britain has famously been based on austerity measures, and it sure doesn’t seem to be working all that well. Karl Smith provides the caveats:
The UK has an infamous productivity puzzle, that has allowed it to add jobs even as GDP stalls. The UK is more closely tied to the crumbling Eurozone economy. The UK has seen its energy resources dwindle while the US has seen them explode. The United States has seen a good deal more austerity than its President would have liked.
All true, and these things point in different directions. That said, austerity doesn’t seem to be working in Britain and it’s not working in the rest of Europe either. So why are Republicans so hellbent on emulating them?
