It’s not the first time of course. Something similar happened with banking, where the US got stuck in the mid-20th century with people still using paper checks, no access to instant digital transfers, etc.
The EU, for all its faults, is a far more competetive environment than the US and has been for decades. Air travel, telecoms, and banking are far more competetive than the US. The US favors cartel systems so that there are a small number of airlines, telecom providers, foor companies, etc. Strict competition rules make things like credit cards much cheaper (no "points" etc because there's no money to fund them). So all those products are much cheaper in the EU than in the US and more dynamic too.
These higher prices make the GDP look bigger and the stock market too: in the EU that extorted money is returned as a consumer surplus.
You might argue this for airlines, given how Southwest has gone upmarket in the US while the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet haven't in Europe. But banking? No. The Big Four US banks have 50% of the market, while their Dutch, British, and Spanish equivalents (for example) have 70%.
As for telecom, the US just moved to three mobile carriers from four with 97% of the market, but that's hardly different from their Big Three or Four equivalents in European countries, all with ~90% of the market. Further, in yet another example of nature abhorring a vacuum, a) US cable carriers are seeing good growth in mobile as part of bundled subscriptions, and b) Starlink may soon offer a fourth national network.
As for prices, well, my $25 tax-inclusive Sprint/T-Mobile subscription for three unlimited mobile lines laughs at all the peons out there denied such wonders. But for everyone else, there is always the option of Mint or US Mobile or Visible for $25 monthly unlimited plans, all quite competitive against European MVNO counterparts, all offering coverage from Honolulu to Key West, Anchorage to El Paso.
>Strict competition rules make things like credit cards much cheaper (no "points" etc because there's no money to fund them).
Yes, I really hate earning 2-5% cashback on every purchase made with my personal and business cards.
>national champions and cartel
In what way are the Big Four US banks, or Big Three US carriers, "national champions" akin to the European nationalized days of yore, with the likes of Bull, British Telecom, etc.? And no, the US taking a 10% share of Intel is not the same thing as France assembling Groupe Bull, or Britain assembling ICL or BAe.
>These higher prices make the GDP look bigger and the stock market too: in the EU that extorted money is returned as a consumer surplus.
Ah yes, the days of yore, when (say) British Telecom and its fellow European equivalents were able to offer world-leading services at world-leading prices while returning a "consumer surplus" (whatever that is). Oh, wait.
PS - If you want to gripe about cartels, look north of the 49th. Canada's Big Five banks have 90% of the market, and Big Three carriers are so dominant—without offering niceties like $25 unlimited nationwide plans to all—that long ago they gained the "Robelus" nickname.
The only time in my life I've seen a subcription become cheaper was with one of my phones that is on US Mobile. The monthly bill went down from $6.95 to $5! That's for a phone for mostly SMS and some voice calls per month, no data.
> Yes, I really hate earning 2-5% cashback
5% seems overoptimistic.
The ceiling seems to be 2%
Anything above 2% has a lot of fine print attached to it. Either limited categories or limited cashback per month or something else.
If you know any card with unlimited cashback over 2% let us know, please.
I have Amazon (US Bank) and Walmart (OnePay) credit cards that each offer 5% back for all purchases from those establishments, as well as other means of 5% back that have some fine print, as you said. In addition ...
>If you know any card with unlimited cashback over 2% let us know, please.
Robinhood Gold card offers unlimited 3% back. Its "fine print", if you will:
* Needing to have Gold membership on Robinhood account. I pay $50 a year; essentially, an annual fee. Since Robinhood Gold offers $1000 in free margin, I bought $1000 of SGOV on margin and earn ~$35 in dividends annually, paying for most of the membership fee. * There are reports of people getting their card closed for non-personal use. I use other cards for business purposes, and always get at least 2% back depending on the card and vendor.
That's it.
Meanwhile Chinese EVs are banned, and even Tesla FSD is banned in most of Europe.
The real comparison is compared to most human drivers - distracted on their phones and smoking cigarettes, drunk driving or high on marijuana or laughing gas, etc.
LIDAR wouldn't help in case of water/rain, quite the opposite. It does help for funny painting.
AFAIU only Ford and Tesla have it currently?
BMW can self drive on autobahns in europe.
So none of them can do it properly anywhere :D
Camera-only systems like the Tesla cannot handle some weather conditions and should not allowed on European roads.
I agree that Chinese EV cars are all over Europe.
Maybe I misunderstand you, but I don’t think this is true. On the contrary: AFAIK there isn’t a single European country that does this.
Which countries are you thinking of?
It's crazy that the EU criticise Trump for the ridiculous tariffs, but then do near the same thing themselves.
And unlike Trump, we cannot vote them out.
Tesla benefited <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-19/tesla-vol...> from Canada cutting import duty on Chinese EVs, by grabbing most of the slots.
Are you actually in the EU? If so, are you blind? Chinese EVs self-evidently are not banned.
What? BYD, NIO and others are to be found everywhere in Germany. I literally see one parked on the other side of the street looking out of my window right now.
The lower tariff on hybrid cars is even dumber, why do we want more polluting cars?