Every Western leader and government wants economic growth. But how to achieve it is seemingly unknown. Since the financial crisis of 2008, European economies have seen low growth, stagnant wages and in recent years high inflation. Germany has had growth close to zero, with Britain only a percent or so higher. Yet in the same period China and India have both risen 300%. Elsewhere, the IMF predicts the typical developed nation will only grow by 1.5% this year. Meanwhile global debt has been on an ever-rising curve, now well over double global GDP, with the US paying over $1 trillion on interest payments on its debt alone - a figure higher than its Defence Budget.
Can leading Western nations reverse their relative economic decline and find a means to return to higher rates of growth, and rising living standards? Is increased debt a break on growth or the means to instigate it? Or should we accept Europe's economic decline is unavoidable and see other goals and aims as more important?