Wall Street Journalさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Wall Street JournalInstagram)「Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades. They are becoming poorer.⁠ ⁠ The French are drinking less red wine. Spaniards are stinting on olive oil. Across Germany, meat and milk consumption has fallen to the lowest level in three decades. Italy’s economic development minister convened a crisis meeting in May over prices for pasta, the country’s favorite staple, after they jumped by more than double the national inflation rate.⁠ ⁠ With consumption spending in free fall, Europe tipped into recession at the start of the year, reinforcing a sense of relative economic, political and military decline that kicked in at the start of the century.⁠ ⁠ Europe’s current predicament has been long in the making. An aging population with a preference for free time and job security over earnings ushered in years of lackluster economic and productivity growth.⁠ ⁠ Then came the one-two punch of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s protracted war in Ukraine. By upending global supply chains and sending the prices of energy and food rocketing, the crises aggravated ailments that had been festering for decades.⁠ ⁠ Governments’ responses only compounded the problem. To preserve jobs, they steered their subsidies primarily to employers, leaving consumers without a cash cushion when the price shock came. Americans, by contrast, benefited from inexpensive energy and government aid directed primarily at citizens to keep them spending.⁠ ⁠ Adjusted for inflation and purchasing power, wages have declined by about 3% since 2019 in Germany, by 3.5% in Italy and Spain and by 6% in Greece. Real wages in the U.S. have increased by about 6% over the same period, according to OECD data.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.」7月21日 5時35分