> The missing macro is that during and after WWII, the US had the luxury of being the only intact industrial economy.

While true, this is generally overemphasized. The destruction of industry in other countries helped the postwar US, but the US didn't need that help to begin with to achieve an absurd lead over everyone else.

If we look at 1938, the US still has a higher GDP than Germany and the USSR (#2 and #3) combined. This is just before the war, so everyone has had over 20 years to recover, and they hadn't started bombing each other yet.

Stats based on: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1334182/wwii-pre-war-gdp...

The US is massive, has cheap undeveloped land, natural resources, and easy transit (you have a massive river running down the center for barges, along with lots of flat runs for railroads). Compare with Europe, where space and resources are a constant problem, alongside tensions between countries wasting time.

The US was playing the industrial revolution on easy mode, in comparison to everyone else