Secular stagnation in the EU? The weakening of the European engine of growth
· The three decades following wwii saw sustained growth in the industrial world, favoured by a stable international economic environment. The two engines of investment and exports represented a powerful combination fuelling post-war growth. This mechanism broke down in the early 1970s, leaving only exports as the main driver. This paper explores the factors that interrupted the golden age of postwar capitalist development in the late 1960s and early 1970s.