4.2% Unemployment

[Seth Ackerman]

Chris,

Since the Kosovo issue has been run through so many times, let's change
subjects.

I'm curious about the feeling among the social democratic left in Europe
about deregulation. As you say, the low unemployment rate here is a
powerful bludgeon against the European social welfare systems. But there
is a quite convincing argument that the problem in Europe has more to do
with the monetary and fiscal policies demanded by Maastricht (and with
the behavior of the Bundesbank in the '80's) than with "inflexible"
labor markets and the like. At the very least, a reflationary
macroeconomic program should be tried before the Europeans junk a quite
successful system.

To what extent does this argument register in the debate over there?
Does it figure at all in people's conciousness? Is there a feeling of
fatalism? And what has the reaction been to the brief career of Oskar
Lafontaine in government?

I'm asking about opinion in West Europe as a whole, including Britain?

Seth