by msvan on 12/15/19, 10:21 AM with 17 comments
European countries are notably absent. Where did Europe go wrong, and is there any way to catch up?
by alt_f4 on 12/15/19, 3:58 PM
* the regulatory environment is tough on businesses: it's hard to start one and follow all the rules. The rules can also be different across EU states.
* poorer local market. Europeans generally don't have as much disposable income as Americans. It's harder to get a good amount of people to pay 20 EUR / month for a SaaS.
* different investor culture: if you failed once, you'll always fail thinking
* corporate and personal taxes are high, so there's little incentive to work like crazy to become a multimillionaire if you have to pay the bulk of it in tax.
* overall tougher social mobility, making it hard for top talent to get to the right people for funding, ideas, mentoring, etc.
* EU spends public money in attempt to create "unicorns". This feeds a certain class of exploitative business people and paper pushers who have optimized to leech off these programs by building useless things that technically check the boxes in rule books and regulations, in order to get even more public money.
by alexzender on 12/15/19, 11:07 AM
by Juliate on 12/15/19, 11:35 AM
It's not the only one, but that's one huge investor that drives many others.
In the US, or China, you have one _huge_ budget, compared to what can be compared in terms of integration across european countries (each with their own politics, armies, capabilities, budgets, priorities; even if they do integrate & collaborate with each other).
by rini17 on 12/15/19, 11:39 AM
Source(in Slovak): https://finweb.hnonline.sk/ekonomika/951768-spolumajitel-ese...
by zoobab on 12/15/19, 11:07 AM
This is dangerous on several levels, from waste of public money to harm to smaller competitors.
by rini17 on 12/15/19, 11:28 AM
ECB recently joined quantitative easing however (printing money), it is buying corporate bonds en masse, so unicorn-scale VC may happen too.
by rotterdamdev on 12/16/19, 10:53 PM
by chillacy on 12/15/19, 7:54 PM
by eb0la on 12/15/19, 5:23 PM
The US tax system allows^H^H^H^H^H^Hencourages that: this is a good use to money that would be taxed if came back to the US.
Instead it comes back as sales, and better market position ;-).
by AlDante2 on 12/15/19, 12:43 PM
https://fortune.com/global500/search/?non-us-cos-y-n=true&pr...
NB: Interesting that Accenture is counted as an Irish company...
by Someone on 12/15/19, 1:56 PM
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237544:
”a leading economist argues that many key problems of the American economy are due not to the flaws of capitalism or the inevitabilities of globalization but to the concentration of corporate power. By lobbying against competition, the biggest firms drive profits higher while depressing wages and limiting opportunities for investment, innovation, and growth.
Why are cell-phone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question. But the search for an answer took Thomas Philippon on an unexpected journey through some of the most complex and hotly debated issues in modern economics. Ultimately he reached his surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition. Sector after economic sector is more concentrated than it was twenty years ago, dominated by fewer and bigger players who lobby politicians aggressively to protect and expand their profit margins. Across the country, this drives up prices while driving down investment, productivity, growth, and wages, resulting in more inequality. Meanwhile, Europe—long dismissed for competitive sclerosis and weak antitrust—is beating America at its own game.
Philippon, one of the world’s leading economists, did not expect these conclusions in the age of Silicon Valley start-ups and millennial millionaires. But the data from his cutting-edge research proved undeniable. In this compelling tale of economic detective work, we follow him as he works out the basic facts and consequences of industry concentration in the U.S. and Europe, shows how lobbying and campaign contributions have defanged antitrust regulators, and considers what all this means for free trade, technology, and innovation. For the sake of ordinary Americans, he concludes, government needs to return to what it once did best: keeping the playing field level for competition. It’s time to make American markets great—and free—again.”
I know this is controversial, so I looked for negative reviews on this book. I can’t find a convincing one.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Reversal-America-Gave-Markets/d... has 13 reviews, all 5 stars, and positive.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44326237-the-great-rever... has mostly 4 and 5 ratings, with a single one-star review, but that doesn’t say more than “rated it”.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/has-america-gone-sof... is the best critique I could find to critique it, which basically says “Is he right? We can’t tell”.