“Europe continues, slowly and reluctantly, to deregulate its economies. In this it is following the US example. The American economy has some problems at the moment, but the EU’s governments are ever mindful of, and oppressed by, the long-term success of the American model. What is interesting is that the United States has been moving […]
Archive for the 'Europe' Category
Oct1st2007
Forbes recently released its list of the 400 richest people. John Tamney writing in Real Clear Politics gives us the lessons from the findings:
Of the charter members of the first Forbes 400 in 1982, only 32 remain today. Far from a country where only the rich get richer, the wealthy in the US […]
Mar28th2007
Abolishing the Middlemen Won’t Make Health Care a Free Lunch
Published by in Economics, Europe, General and HealthCare. 0 CommentsWriting in the New York Times, economist Tyler Cowen compares healthcare in the United States with that of Europe:
Economic Scene
Abolishing the Middlemen Won’t Make Health Care a Free Lunch
By TYLER COWEN
Published: March 22, 2007
Proponents of single-payer national health insurance note that private health insurance has overhead costs of 10 to 25 percent of expenditures. Medicare, […]
Jan11th2007
The US Economy In Perspective
Published by in Capitalism, Economics, Europe, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Personal, Poverty and Welfare. 6 CommentsMark J. Perry, professor of finance and business economics at the University of Michigan, puts the US economy in perspective:
The unemployment rate in Canada just hit a 30-year low of 6.1% in December, the lowest rate since 1977 when Pierre Trudeau was Canada’s prime minister and Jimmy Carter was U.S. president. During the last U.S. […]
Nov20th2006
“If the European Union were a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states. France, Italy, Great Britain and Germany have lower GDP per capita than all but four of the states in the United States. In fact, GDP per capita is lower in the vast majority of the EU-countries […]
Nov14th2006
“The youth unemployment rate is largely an artefact of French law. If employers were free to fire employees without cause, as under “employment at will,” the most common form of employment contract in the U.S. private sector, they would be much more willing to take a chance on hiring workers without a record of satisfactory […]
Nov2nd2006
“If you want to understand the real enduring strength of America as a nation, look at the Dow Jones industrial average. Not the record 12,000 level reached this month — that may last no longer than a day or a week. Look instead at the 30 companies that make up the Dow index. Only two […]
Oct17th2006
Dynamic Capitalism By Edmund Phelps
Published by in Capitalism, Economics, Europe, General and Unions. 0 CommentsEdmund Phelps, the winner of this years Nobel Prize in economics, has a very good article in the Wall Street Journal on Dynamic Capitalism, of which he compares the two different flavors of capitalism, the US model vs the Western Europe model.
He writes:
Dynamic Capitalism
Entrepreneurship is lucrative–and just.
BY EDMUND S. PHELPS
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 12:01 […]
Aug29th2006
Toyota and Volkswagen ALSO Have To Pay For Employees Health Care
Published by in Economics, Europe, General, HealthCare, Myths and Unions. 2 CommentsLiberals are fond of saying that the reason General Motors and US based companies in general are having so many problems competing is because Toyota and Volkswagen, located in Japan and Germany respectively, don’t have to pay health care costs and US based companies do - putting GM at a disadvantage to foreign competition.
Megan […]
Aug10th2006
How The European Welfare State Affects Women
Published by in Economics, Europe, General and Welfare. 0 CommentsNewsweek writes:
Here’s a pop quiz on gender equality. In which part of the world are women most likely to reach the highest rungs of power? Choice A offers new moms 12 weeks of maternity leave, almost no subsidized child care, no paid paternity leave and has a notoriously hard-driving business culture. Choice B gives them […]
Jul26th2006
The Difference Between ‘Old Europe’ And The United States
Published by in Economics, Europe, General and Taxes. 5 CommentsHistorian Thomas C. Reeves, writing in the History News Network, details the differences between ‘Old Europe’ and the United States:
The United States has moved far ahead of every European country in every significant economic category. As Olaf Gersemann recently pointed out, “Adjusted for differences in price levels, per capita income in the United States now […]
Jul17th2006
The Washington Post writes:
On average, at least one millionaire leaves France every day to take up residence in more wealth-friendly nations, according to a government study.
At a time when France is struggling to stay competitive in an increasingly integrated world, business leaders say the country can’t afford to make refugees of some of its most […]
Jul6th2006
“Sweden’s unemployment rate is 15 per cent, three times the figure being used by the government, according to new research from McKinsey Global Institute, the think tank”. –Financial Times
Update: Economist has more.
Jun13th2006
European Racism
Published by in Economics, Europe, General and Hispanics (Minority Issues). 11 CommentsThe Los Angeles Times reports:
Although players of color have graced Europe’s top leagues since the 1970s, and there’s hardly a championship team anywhere without some Brazilian or African imports, an astonishing level of racism persists among some fans and even coaches.
Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin, for example, recently complained that the influx of foreign players deprived […]
Jun8th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Discrimination, Economics, Europe, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Immigration and Welfare. 0 Comments“On the face of it, America’s welfare system is harsher and less hospitable than Europe’s, something that many liberals lament. But in this respect, at least, that appearance is misleading. The unintended consequences of Europe’s milder regime are not just a looming fiscal collapse but also, in the meantime, intensifying and plainly self-destructive […]
Jun6th2006
“One of Mr. Paulson’s first briefings from the Treasury staff should be about what high taxes have done to the economies of Europe. According to research by Nobel laureate Edward Prescott and by economists Steven Davis and Magnus Henrekson, the high tax rates in Europe have reduced work effort and distorted the industrial mix. The […]
