> Yes, but why hasn't said success loop occurred anywhere else yet? Silicon Valley has been a "thing" for five decades now.

Same reasons (plural) it also hasn't happened a second time anywhere else in the USA.

The list is long, and economics is full of anti-inductive loops.

> But that is going to require a level of support that is probably beyond the scale of one national government.

The EU as an institution is tiny in comparison to its member states, total budget only €192.8 billion: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/2026-euro...

> The EU can trace its origins back to France and Germany agreeing to combine its coal and steel.

While true, that's like saying the US can trace its origins back to some cold salty tea: it misses quite a lot of both the good and the bad.