As for America, we've thrived in recent decades with a credit-consumption-led economy, whereby we maintained a middle class by using more steroids (easy credit, subprime mortgages and construction work) and less muscle-building (education, skill-building and innovation).
Sheikh Mansour's bold purchase of the Manchester club happened just as the post-industrial economy, reliant on credit and consumption, was slumping into banking collapse.
And as you might infer from the restaurant index, the growth appears to be fuelled by the kind of credit and consumption boosters that ministers swore Britain would avoid this time around.
If there is discontent now at the prospect of a modern austerity far less onerous than the hardships evoked by Mr. Judt, then there is also a sense of uneven payback for years of prosperity when, in Britain, well-being exploded on levels of credit and consumption that now seem inconceivable.
Higher incomes, helped by somewhat more accessible consumer credit, boosted consumption, creating more jobs in a virtuous cycle.Large domestic appliances and cars cost at least 50% more than in most other countriesBut the policy has now pushed costs beyond what either the foreign or the domestic market is willing to bear.
I do not want to make predictions for the next few years, but with credit and consumption growth turning negative in 2009, the outlook is not good.
More recently, the UK has suffered a deep economic slump and high public debt as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, which revealed its over-reliance on easy credit, domestic consumption and rising house prices.
And, maybe short-term ways to grow economies, like financial speculative bubbles and credit based consumption no longer work.
After a positive initial reaction to anti-cyclical governmental policies with the expansion of credit and consumption, there was an overreliance on the capacity of these policies to promote growth coupled with a lack of timely investments in infrastructure.
Meanwhile, imports have boomed thanks to a credit-driven consumption binge.
