The United States is Not Ahead in Everything That Matters

unemployment in the United States just 4.3 percent at present has spawned triumphalism here and envy in Europe. According to the standard view, the United States can thank its dynamism and flexibility for its current good fortune. Europe, on the other hand, should blame its record unemployment rates on rigid labor market institutions (unions and high minimum wages, for example) and the burden of large welfare states. That the United States has considerably lower unemployment than Europe is both true and enviable. However, this statement, which is the primary basis for recent U.S. triumphalism, is a narrow and incomplete comparison. This article assesses some of the key claims made about the economic performance of the United States and the other advanced countries by presenting internationally comparable data on a broad range of economic indicators. We analyze both what the indica-