A continuing HOTLINE theme  is that despite Washington’s best efforts to the contrary, over the past several decades the U.S. economy has left rusty old Europe in a cloud of dust.

This factoid from economist Edward Conard at the American Enterprise Institute caught our attention:

Conard included this chart from MIT technologist Andrew McAfee, which is a picture worth 1,000 words:

Even more astounding is this finding from the EU’s official “The future of European competitiveness” report:

Europe is stuck in a static industrial structure with few new companies rising up to disrupt existing industries or develop new growth engines. In fact, there is no EU company with a market capitalisation over EUR 100 billion that has been set up from scratch in the last fifty years, while all six US companies with a valuation above EUR 1 trillion have been created in this period.

Tariffs, socialism and industrial policy are the failed experiments of Europe. We cringe when we hear American politicians want to copy them.