The Economist speaks of the "Slow Death of Old Europe"
...or at least its Central and Eastern Europe correspondent, Edward Lucas, does, in today's Daily Mail.His thesis is that France, Italy and Germany are all going to die, and the place to look for the future is Britain (unless Gordon Brown ruins it) and Eastern Europe. For example:
"the astonishingly competitive economy left by the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major"
"the real clue to progress lies in the former captive nations of Eastern Europe such as Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and others...they have sucked in a stunning $163bn of foreign direct investment [since 1989]"
The first quote really only tells you about his political leanings. The idea that the British economy in 1990 was 'astonishingly competitive' is absurd, and even by 1997 the 'astonishingly' could only refer to relative to past performance. No neutral observer would agree. On the second point the performance of many of the E.European countries has been good, particularly recently, though I would suggest their joining or being given the green light to join the EU has played a more important role than people like Lucas allow. However the stunning $163bn of FDI since 1989 should be kept in perspective. If the trend for the first three-quarters of 2005 continued in the final quarter, France has received FDI of $165bn since 2002, which is not bad for a country on its last legs.
posted by Matthew @ 4/12/2006 03:31:00 PM
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