Degrowth & The Decoupling from Economic Reality: Electricity, GDP, & MVA (Data Analysis)

The year 2000 was a good time to be a manufacturing worker in the European Union. Growth in Europe’s manufacturing sector—as measured by Manufacturing Value Added—or MVA—moved at a brisk pace. From 2000 to 2008, MVA increased by a staggering 49%—and then, it stopped. By 2022—14 years later—Europe’s MVA output was the same as it was in 2008.

If we examine electricity generation in the European Union, we find a similar departure from the historical trend. By 2008, electricity generation began to fall—by 2023, Europe’s electricity generation had fallen back to pre-millennium levels. Some of this, of course, can be attributed to a greater focus on efficiency, but, this efficiency factor is conflated with the degrowth and deindustrialization trends that Europe faced during this post financial crisis period.

In this video, we explore the economic data of the Western Economies—the European Union, Western Europe, and the US—in the wake of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. We examine the strange decoupling that occurred between electricity generation, GDP, and Manufacturing Value Added (MVA).