"Americans unbalanced these days almost as a matter of policy"

Rakesh Bhandari bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Wed Aug 4 07:45:51 PDT 1999


". They accept double-digit unemployment rates without complaint."

That would come as surprise to those who participated in the unemployed movements in France or those voters who put Kohl out to pasture.


>Who came up with
>this idiotic notion that there is something wrong with economic
>security? That throwing people out of work in the name of "downsizing"
>is commendable because it ensures "competitiveness"?

It's not commendable; it's profitable.


>There is nothing wrong with protecting a civilized way of life.
>Americans dismiss this as a recipe for decline. Europeans, they believe,
>will continue to suffer a flight of capital while America will be where
>all the exciting high-tech work will be done.

Relying on anecdotal evidence, I do think massive parts of the R&D operations (or at least a high percentage of new projects) of European multinationals in, say, chemicals and drugs have indeed been moved to the US. Does anyone have data on this? R&D labor is considerably cheaper in the US.

Or rather the Dow Jones continues to climb to
>the stratosphere. Which is all that people actually mean when they say
>"the United States is doing well." But sooner or later something
>untoward will happen.

Something untoward is much more likely to happen to Europe or Japan at this point. And if something untoward happens to the US, it will sink Japan too. Further slowdown in Japan, then collapse of NICs, then collapse of energy prices, then Russia goes fascist, then Europe blows up.

At this
>point, the European-style capitalism will seem rather attractive.

Not after Schroeder is done with it.


>Europe's wealth is not as tied to the stock market as it is in the
>United States. It is also not burdened by a huge trade deficit that it
>can suddenly no longer finance.

really?

yours, rakesh



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