> And at this point Germany has seen net zero per capita economic expansion for coming up on 30 years.
What exactly do you mean by "net zero per capita economic expansion"? According to the World Bank https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD?locat... , German GDP per capita was $38,294 in 1991 (adjusting for purchasing power and inflation) and $52,931 in 2021, which looks more like 38% expansion to me.
Germany GDP per capita 2022 (IMF estimate): $51,000
BLS inflation adjustment calculator: $26,000 in 1992 = $55,000 in 2022.
Germany has seen a net per capita contraction over 30 years.
Germany's GDP per capita was not $38,000 in 1991. It was $46,000 in 2019 for reference. That 1991 $38k figure is drastically higher than the US figure was at the time. Their GDP per capita hasn't been higher than the US on a sustained basis in the past 40+ years except for a brief period in 1995 (where it was a few thousand dollars higher).
And this scenario isn't unique to Germany, nearly every economic power in Europe has seen the same intense, generational stagnation (that includes Britain, France, Spain, Italy).
Please do not compare 1992 with 2022. The problems of reunification did not become truly apparent until mid/end of the 90s.
Comparing separate European countries individually in general is difficult, wealth and productivity is redistributed within the EU by various means. An hierarchical model that takes all EU countries into account might be the most sensible approach.
It seems like the reason your results differ from the World Bank is that you're taking German GDP per capita figures translated into dollars according to the exchange rate at the time without adjusting for purchasing power, and then you use US consumer inflation to compare them across time.
Whereas the World Bank appears to derive its figures by applying the German inflation rate (which was lower for most of the 30-year period) to make GDP per capita comparable across time, and then translates the values into US dollars while compensating for purchasing power differences.
If you earn income in Germany but spend it in the US, the former scenario would be quite relevant, but under normal conditions I think the World Bank's calculation is more useful.
It's interesting though that the two ways to compare the value of money over time and space lead to such different results.
What exactly do you mean by "net zero per capita economic expansion"? According to the World Bank https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD?locat... , German GDP per capita was $38,294 in 1991 (adjusting for purchasing power and inflation) and $52,931 in 2021, which looks more like 38% expansion to me.