>I'm trying to recollect all the greatest expressions of U. S. economic
>self-confidence from over the last,say, seven years. I'm thinking mainly
>of pronouncements by public officials--there was some business with
>Clinton giving a lesson to the G7 last year--but books and magazine
>articles are also welcomed.
One of my all-time favorites.
Doug
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Financial Times - June 23, 1997
News: Denver Summit: US model fails to win admirers
US President Bill Clinton clearly relished persuading most of the other summit leaders to join him in donning cowboy boots for the western-style dinner and musical extravaganza in Denver on Saturday night.
But any hopes the US might have had that European and Japanese leaders would leave the summit proposing to emulate the highly successful American economic model were disappointed. Throughout the weekend the echoing US theme - barely suppressed triumphalism about its economic performance in the last few years - clearly irritated the other heads of government and finance ministers.
Though the final summit statement had warm words for US achievements - steady, robust growth, low unemployment and low inflation - there was little enthusiasm for the US model of economic individualism based on flexible labour markets, an accommodating regulatory approach, and a small and diminishing public sector with minimum social protection.
US officials denied they had been seeking a formal endorsement of their system. But the tone of their remarks before the summit suggested US leaders had been expecting a little more recognition that the late 1990s had proved the ultimate global success of American capitalism.
As world leaders arrived last week, Mr Clinton said other countries could learn not just from the traditional features of the 'Anglo-Saxon' approach, but also from what his supporters call 'Clintonomics' - reducing the federal budget deficit, opening markets to trade, and investing in education and training.
One of the principal architects of these policies, Mr Larry Summers, deputy Treasury secretary, was characteristically direct. 'It is little wonder that other nations are looking to the American example for economic policy inspiration in much the same way that Americans recently looked abroad,' he wrote on the eve of the summit.
One European official described the French delegation as 'miffed' at the Americans' effusive self-praise and the harsh words of some in the US for the rigidities of French and European markets that have produced mass unemployment.
Mr Jacques Santer, president of the European Commission, told the summit that while he congratulated the US on its achievements, Europe had its own successful model based on 'solidarity and cohesion'.The view of many of the non-US participants was that the US economic performance of the last few years merely brought into sharp focus both the positive and negative aspects of the US model. The US has not yet properly dealt with the downside of its system - inequalities of income and wealth, poor quality public education and health services, and the social problems it produces. In Denver itself widespread drug abuse and serious crime are as much a part of the fabric as low unemployment and high-tech businesses.
'They keep telling us how successful their system is,' said one official of a European government. 'Then they remind us not to stray too far from our hotel at night.'