Even when things are good in Europe there are many Europeans who don't
want much to be Europeans. When things are awful in Europe,
as they are now, almost no one wants to hear about Europe. Even the
Europhile leaders who are big on the European Union--or used to be--are
going local and finding fault with other leaders who are also going
local. As you may recall, I think Europe is nigh close to a
fantasy. So this does not surprise me.
Take a look at a fascinating article, "Brown furious over Sarkozy
VAT attack," in Saturday's FT about the contretemps between
Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy over Brown's plan to cut the VAT, which
would be an $18 billion centerpiece to British Labour's fiscal stimulus
program. This would, of course, put pressure on other European
countries to eliminate their VAT. I suppose that one problem with Sarkozy is that his utterances are not
really polite. In fact, they are usually inflammatory. His
depiction of the British economy is close to mine.
So I'll tell you mine. The center of the British economy is the
City where sat the bankers, sort of like Wall Street. The Brits had
the advantage of having been colonized by the financial elites of four
cultures: the Arabs, the Russians, the Chinese and the
Indians. They were there and now they are gone, gone home to tidy
the mess outside London. But London and it banks, said Sarkozy, lay
"close to ruin." It's true, but it's not helpful. How many banks will soon become complete wards of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer?
I've lived in France but I don't know that much about the vigor of its
industry. Still, I gather that it has been degraded by bureaucratic
and trade union socialism. One year I lived there the economy went
through a reform that I imagined as magic: the work-week was 40
hours and was cut to 35, only the pay would be the same. And here
is the rabbit.
Like many Americans, I've been trying to figure out what advantage we
have over the Brits in the coming months and years. So this is what
I've fixed on: our industry is still relatively vibrant and
diverse. When Britain has lost its banking services, all that
British working men will be able to do is cut each other's
whiskers. And British working women will go back to raising
children.
Sarkozy was not only unkind to England. He was massively unkind to
Czechoslovakia. Dangling the promise of further social measures in
France and "floating the prospect of tax cuts for families on low to
middle incomes," he then went on to suggest that Renault and
Peugeot-Citro