Skip to content
Technology & Innovation

Slow Economic Growth

“Nowhere is it written that the United States can never decline,” says Richard Posner in his analysis of the economic problems befalling the E.U. and U.S. He and Gary Becker propose solutions.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“Nowhere is it written that the United States can never decline,” says Richard Posner in his analysis of the economic problems befalling the E.U. and U.S. He and Gary Becker propose solutions. “The current European economic crisis is the product of an encounter between a defective institutional structure (a common currency but no common fiscal authority) and an overindebted member state of the supranational institution,” writes Posner. Becker says that “Apropos of comparisons between US and Europe, the US faces many of the same problems as Europe, but generally they are in a more muted form.”

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related
Richard Posner and Gary Becker account for the sluggish economic recovery with reference to the housing market, mounting public debt, fear of regulation and the E.U. debt crisis.

Up Next
In his new book, Clay Shirky says that what we do with our free time is changing: from passive TV watching to active online engagement, we are motivated by a desire for self-fulfillment.