>> It's easier to grow fast if you're a country that has been blown to bits and is putting everything back together, rather than one that's already prosperous.
Yup. In 1949 the US had had something like 80% of the world's manufacturing capacity. From there, it had no place to go but down. Or more exactly, the others had no place to go but up.
Also, we think of the Euro-zone economies as being sclerotic because for the last 20 years most of them have been. The book was published in 1982, before the European regulatory and welfare spending onslaught. Averaged over the last ten years, Germany has had little growth.
The East Germans were incredibly well educated. Yes, their physical infrastructure was far behind West Germany's, but reunification should have been profitable almost from the beginning.
Reunification should have been like the end of WWII but with less damage and more and better help.
A deep education according to Marxist principles that explain all economic growth as being the result of central planning, and all problems as being the result of competition is worse than no education at all.
For evidence of this, look at Eastern Europe.
...or the humanities department at any Ivy League college.
Yup. In 1949 the US had had something like 80% of the world's manufacturing capacity. From there, it had no place to go but down. Or more exactly, the others had no place to go but up.
Also, we think of the Euro-zone economies as being sclerotic because for the last 20 years most of them have been. The book was published in 1982, before the European regulatory and welfare spending onslaught. Averaged over the last ten years, Germany has had little growth.