Figure 1: Real GDP per German, Italian and French aged 15-64, converted to 2013 price level with updated 2005 EKS purchasing power parities, 1950-2013
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board, Total Database, January 2014, http://www.conference-board.org/economics
Figure 2: Real GDP per German, Italian and French aged 15-64, converted to 2013 price level with updated 2005 EKS purchasing power parities, 1.9 per cent detrended, 1950-2013
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board, Total Database, January 2014, http://www.conference-board.org/economics
A flat line in figure 2 means real GDP growth of 1.9% per year, which is trend growth. A rising line means growth that is higher than trend rate; a falling line means growth at below the trend rate of 1.9%. 1.9% is the trend rate of growth of the USA in the 20th century. Figure 2 shows that:
- Germany, Italy and France all boomed until the mid-1970s;
- the French and German economies went into a long-term decline from that time; and
- the Italian economy stopped growing at anything more than the trend rate of growth between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s and then went into a sharp decline that borders on the depression.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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