- Out with the old... And in with the pro-growth, pro-business new Europe. (Via) - interesting stuff:
"it's not only former Communist countries that have put rapid growth at the top of their priority list. In fact, since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union that saw it grow from 15 members to 25, the pro-growth nations may now be in the majority. Which means that in the latest of the occasional debates over the future of Europe, the tables have been turned on Europe's founding nations, especially France and Germany."
2 Comments:
If Germany is suffering so badly from globalization and poor competitiveness, how come that it is still a top-notch exporting country, with increasing profitability for its export industries, positive trade balance with pretty much everybody, including those fantastic fast-growing Eastern European economise, and with a personal savings rate of more than 10% of income (compared to Zero in the US) ?
The problem is not German competitiveness compared to other countries, but that botched government and monetary policies have had the effect of systematically discouraging domestic consumption.
Funny, I was just thinking the introduction read like a particularly bad Thomas Friedman article, then he compounds the error by actually quoting Thomas Friedman!
Anyway, the commenter above is right; the Eurozone as a whole and Germany in particular is doing extremely well in trade terms. The problem is not on the supply side but rather a lack of domestic demand, and the kind of neoliberal policies this article advocates will do exactly the reverse of what is needed to perk up demand.
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