"and our current real estate price bubble.
its fashionable to trash europe, and I understand it from a political viewpoint. but the US has many of the same economic challenges hurting europe, because of free trade and globalism depressing wages and stripping industries that once provided middle class jobs, sending them offshore.
the thread running now with the thomas friedman article is worth taking a look at"
Even with outsourcing, US still has, what, a 5.1-5.2% unemployment rate?
Europe, which is basically sliding into a purely socialist continent has 8-10% unemployment rate.
Productivity levels are still higher in the US than in Europe.
In conclusion, do you support them ousting the euro or keeping it?
our "productivity miracle" in the US is, in large part, happening because US companies are offshoring low productivity jobs (call centers, technical support, low skill manufacturing, etc) to lower cost centers. the unemployment rate doesn't measure alot of what is going on in the job market - people losing their once full time white collar corporate positions, who now work as consultants but in fact work only part year on contracts with no benefits. it also does not measure the shift to service jobs which tend to be lower paying.
people laugh at europe when we see 1% growth rates there. the US is lucky to hold onto 3%. sure, its better then europe, but not by much.
china is sucking all of the air out of the western economies. china is essentially an enterprise zone into which western corporations are pouring investment capital. deal with china, and you'll solve half the problem. then maybe we can get some real productivity inmprovements, the kind that come from investments in technology and automation, not those that come from finding workers who will work for slave wages at the point of a communist gun.
the economies of the members are too disparate to be unified under one economic policy. Italy has a textile industry (clothing) that is important to them, employs alot of people, and they don't want to lose it. the rest of the western nations (US included) is eager to see that industry relocated to china. who wins, who loses?