Paul Krugman, Cui Bono from the Coming of the Bio-Info Tech-Attention Economy, & Embarrassing Conceptual Errors by Economists Who Really Should Know Better: CHART OF THE DAY

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Aghion, Bergeaud, & Garicano claim America’s tech productivity-growth lead is materially widening a US vs. EU real wage and standard-of-living gap. Product wage yes. User wage no. This is—or ought to be—elementary. And I at least, am horrified by Aghion, Bergeaud, and Garicano’s false claim that the benefits from US info-tech productivity growth are not primarily widely distributed among all users. Krugman’s Dutch thought experiment shows that once you ask who captures the surplus—producers or users—as an analytical matter, important elements of ABG’s story are reduced to absurdity…Paul Krugman <https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/challenging-the-narrative-of-european-478> <https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/europe-versus-america-a-response> successfully performs a reductio ad absurdum against Aghion, Bergeaud, and Garicano <https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/paul-krugman-is-wrong-about-us-europe-productivity-gap-by-philippe-aghion-et-al-2026-05>:ShareAghion, Bergeaud, and Garicano correctly observe that the US and Europe have had similar very different productivity growth profiles since over the past generation.Aghion, Bergeaud, and Garicano incorrectly assert that productivity growth trends translate effectively one-for-one into differences in real incomes: Contrary to Krugman’s argument, the US lead in technology and innovation is not helping America and Europe in the same way. It has led to higher US wages and profits, and the gap is widening each year. So, Europe’s productivity problem is not an accounting issue. As Krugman himself once famously remarked, “produc…