America’s economic outperformance is a marvel to behold

American economic declinism is a broad church. Voices on the right claim that big government has stifled the frontier spirit and that soaring debt has condemned future generations to poverty. The left worries that inequality and corporate power have hollowed out the economy. In a rare display of unity, all parts of the ideological spectrum bemoan the death of American manufacturing and the crushing of the middle class.

There is just one snag. On a whole range of measures American dominance remains striking. And relative to its rich-world peers its lead is increasing.