As I never read Gramsci (and really do not mean to :P), therefore can't contribute here. :( Energy vs. lassitude would be an interesting view, though. Can't see how this matches with reality (even economically speaking)

Philosophy isn't much use without specifics. I've noticed some energy coming back to the US stock market in the past couple weeks. Retail performance this past weekend might be an indicator for the holiday season in the US.

Thing is: Traditionally, most of the retail performance is credit-driven. In other words: It is far from definite that it is any sign of healthy "energy" being around. Given the tax reform that puts further pressure on consummation, I do not see any positive outlook. The stock market, yes. But only until the next credit breakdown

Energetic spending might be good energy in the short term for retail. I need to add a side note of rational spending. Irrational thrashing behavior isn't really an optimistic outlook.

I'm rather speaking as someone who studied economics: Credit-driven retail only postpones the drop and makes it worse, i.e. worsens the situation in the long run

I haven't studied economics do I'm relying on your expertise.

I imagine that for cash spending there is an immediate drop.

The point is pretty straightforward: You cannot endlessly continue to buy if you are already buying on credit. At some point, you are not going to be trusted by banks anymore. If this is happening on a huge scale, like it is happening quite often in the US, and starts to happen in the UK, the effect can be disastrous.

Since people not only can't purchase much for the moment, but until they paid their debts

This way, the drop is worsened as it extends over time, leading to companies going bankrupt, leading to drop in supply of goods, leading to rising prices, etc...pretty much a vicious circle

Then getting back to the original question, energies and lassitudes in Europe and the US are better off being polar opposites to create a balanced system.

Cooperation through competition

In theory, that is happening: The USA having a decidedly negative trade balance, (parts of, esp. Germany) Europe a rather positive one. But in the long run, this leads to accumulation of debts. Without the fed bank effectively printing money at whim, the whole system would have collapsed a long time ago

The US is only trusted because it has so big a market volume and the US Dollar having the importance it has as a trade currency