“Eurosclerosis” Versus U.S. Dynamism

Abstract

dogma now reproduced by right and left alike is that the U.S. economy is more efficient than the European economies in producing jobs. Thus, President Clinton, on this side of the Atlantic, and German chancellor Helmut Kohl and British prime minister Tony Blair, among other government leaders in the European Union (EU), on the other side, have advocated a relaxation of regulations in the European labor markets and a reduction of social protections to make these economies more like the U.S. economy in order to stimulate the production of jobs in Europe. In this scenario, Europeans are supposedly loaded down with overly rigid regulations and receive overly generous social benefits, making the EU economies sclerotic in comparison with a dynamic U.S. economy. It is practically impossible to read the press reporting on economics without finding constant reference to the contrast between very low unemployment in the United States and high unemployment in member countries of the European Union, with the