The Lessons of Europe and Wishful Thinking
The Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, Steve Forbes, has just indulged in some wishful thinking, which I share. The main story in the cited post is that Great Britain and mainland Europe offer the world two different lessons on economics. As Forbes says in his first sentence: “THE TAKEAWAY from Britain’s recent elections is simple: Growth works.” He really wishes that Washington would take notice. Good luck! With the Democratic Party controlling the executive branch and the Republicans not having a veto-proof majority in the Senate, this is not a very probable outcome.
Forbes then cites all the good things done for the British economy by the Tories that have motivated the British electorate recently to return them to power. We have already noted these in a previous post. Forbes then looks at the contrary evidence provided by the anti-growth (read Keynesian and Euro-socialist) policies of most of mainland Europe. These anti-growth policies include increased taxes, continued strait-jacket (especially of the labor market) regulation of the private sector, and very permissive social-welfare programs. [See here and here and here and here and here,]
It really would be a good thing if we all would compare and contrast the policies and their outcomes of Britain with much of the rest of Europe. As I commented earlier: Good Luck!
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