Why the US economy keeps defying the odds
Key takeaways
- Thousands of miles away in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a different German giant, BMW, is running its biggest plant in the world.
- The contrast between the two plants helps explain a puzzle economists have been debating for a while: why has the American economy continued to outperform so many of its peers, despite facing the same global shocks?
- Over the past few years, much of the developed world has buckled under a succession of shocks.
Why this matters: a developing story that could shape the day's news cycle.
Michelle Fleury New York business correspondent Getty Images In Dresden, in east Germany late last year, the final car rolled off the assembly line at Volkswagen's "Transparent Factory", built to showcase the pinnacle of European industrial power. Thousands of miles away in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a different German giant, BMW, is running its biggest plant in the world.
The contrast between the two plants helps explain a puzzle economists have been debating for a while: why has the American economy continued to outperform so many of its peers, despite facing the same global shocks?
Over the past few years, much of the developed world has buckled under a succession of shocks. Trump's sweeping tariffs have disrupted global trade. Mass deportations are changing labour markets. And conflict in the Middle East has sent oil prices lurching.