Please remember that Anglo-Saxon economic policy is a failure and the Europeans will never accept it and stop scaring people who would otherwise support basic structural reforms
Beyond the European social model
26.04.2006 - 17:57 CET
The authors conveniently chose only Sweden for their article (http://segonordic.over-blog.com/article-2371340.html ) . Finland is ranked as the most competitive economy in the EU for the last two years and Denmark has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU.
These two countries nevertheless have very high public spending and high tax rates. Along with Sweden, their public service is among the best. They have low budget deficits implying that their spending does not cause a worry to the ex-chequer.
As our Irish friend Andrew Shepherd pointed out, Ireland suffers from lack of spending and their public service is bad. I agree that there are problems with Germany, France and Italy.
There are many other structural reforms to be made, primarily labour-market flexibility.
This is where the flexicurity comes in and Denmark is the prime example.
It is because of articles like this and ideas like this that people (especially French people) get scared and avoid any kind of reform and protest in the street.
Please remember that Anglo-Saxon economic policy is a failure and the Europeans will never accept it and stop scaring people who would otherwise support basic structural reforms.
The authors conveniently chose only Sweden for their article (http://segonordic.over-blog.com/article-2371340.html ) . Finland is ranked as the most competitive economy in the EU for the last two years and Denmark has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU.
These two countries nevertheless have very high public spending and high tax rates. Along with Sweden, their public service is among the best. They have low budget deficits implying that their spending does not cause a worry to the ex-chequer.
As our Irish friend Andrew Shepherd pointed out, Ireland suffers from lack of spending and their public service is bad. I agree that there are problems with Germany, France and Italy.
There are many other structural reforms to be made, primarily labour-market flexibility.
This is where the flexicurity comes in and Denmark is the prime example.
It is because of articles like this and ideas like this that people (especially French people) get scared and avoid any kind of reform and protest in the street.
Please remember that Anglo-Saxon economic policy is a failure and the Europeans will never accept it and stop scaring people who would otherwise support basic structural reforms.
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