{"id":10306,"date":"2017-06-21T11:45:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T18:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=10306"},"modified":"2017-06-21T11:45:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T18:45:05","slug":"europe-is-still-ailing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/europe-is-still-ailing\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Is Still Ailing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Strategika<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
by <\/span>Bruce Thornton<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
Tuesday, June 20, 2017<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Image credit:\u00a0Poster Collection, GE 2678, Hoover Institution Archives.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Recent elections in France, the Netherlands, and Austria, in which Eurosceptic populist and patriotic parties did poorly in national elections, suggest to some that the EU is still strong despite Britain\u2019s vote to leave the union. Yet the problems bedeviling the EU ever since its beginnings in 1992 have not been solved. Nor are they likely to be with just some institutional tweaks and adjustments. \u201cMore Europe,\u201d that is, greater centralization of power in Brussels at the expense of the national sovereignty of member states, is not the answer. The flaws in the whole EU project flow from its questionable foundational assumptions.<\/p>\n

Those problems have been identified and analyzed for decades. EU economic growth and per capita GDP consistently lag behind those of the U.S., in part because of over-regulated dirigiste economies, over-generous social welfare transfers, expensive retirement benefits, restrictive employment laws, and higher taxes. Some countries have addressed these problems, most importantly Germany. But Germany\u2019s economic success has exacerbated the stark contrast with the poorer performing Mediterranean countries. They are still struggling with debt and deficits, and suffering double-digit unemployment rates, particularly among the young, which range from 15 to 25 percent. Germany\u2019s current dominance makes the EU look less like a union of sovereign states and more like a German economic empire.<\/p>\n

Particularly ominous is the case of France, the second largest economy in the EU. France is facing cumulative national debt\u2013\u2013government, household, and business\u2013\u2013that totals 250 percent of its GDP, up 66 percent since 2007. This total does not include unfunded pension and health-care obligations. New president Emmanuel Macron has pledged neoliberal reforms to begin correcting this unsustainable drag on growth, yet previous attempts at even minor changes by French presidents have been met with street demonstrations comprising millions of protestors. It remains questionable whether there is the will among the citizens and their political leaders to face the harsh cuts and painful adjustments necessary to right France\u2019s fiscal ship. Given the size of France\u2019s economy, a fiscal crisis similar to that still troubling Greece will severely stress and further fracture the EU.<\/p>\n

To continue reading: http:\/\/www.hoover.org\/research\/europe-still-ailing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strategika by Bruce Thornton Tuesday, June 20, 2017 Image credit:\u00a0Poster Collection, GE 2678, Hoover Institution Archives. Recent elections in France, the Netherlands, and Austria, in which Eurosceptic populist and patriotic parties did poorly in national elections, suggest to some that the EU is still strong despite Britain\u2019s vote to leave the union. Yet the problems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[958,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Ge","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9959,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/moving-forward-the-need-for-innovations-in-technology-and-strategy\/","url_meta":{"origin":10306,"position":0},"title":"Moving Forward: The Need For Innovations In Technology And Strategy","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kiron K. 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These strategies also contributed to the overall state of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Strategika"","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9949,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-not-just-the-technology-beyond-offset-strategies\/","url_meta":{"origin":10306,"position":1},"title":"It\u2019s Not Just the Technology: Beyond Offset Strategies","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Colonel Joseph (Joe) Felter (ret.) \/\/ Strategika A range of breakthrough technologies are emerging today that have the potential to radically change how we fight and deter threats across all conflict domains\u2014air, land, sea, space, and cyber. 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The Mediterranean Sea is today, as it has always been, a crossroads. The name itself testifies to that, as it means \u201cthe sea in the middle of the earth,\u201d a Latin term reflecting\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10302,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/u-s-foreign-policy-and-the-transatlantic-relationship\/","url_meta":{"origin":10306,"position":3},"title":"U.S. Foreign Policy and the Transatlantic Relationship","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Strategika by Erik Jones Tuesday, June 20, 2017 Image credit:\u00a0Poster Collection, INT 280, Hoover Institution Archives. As candidate, Donald Trump made a number of comments about the utility of the North Atlantic Alliance and about the virtues of European integration that left many in the establishment scratching their heads. When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Strategika"","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11616,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/strategika-issue-56-the-defense-of-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":10306,"position":4},"title":"Strategika Issue 56: The Defense of Europe","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"European Defense Please read a new essay by my colleague, Angelo M. Codevilla\u00a0in Strategika. Europe was never a full partner in its own defense. The very question\u2014Will Europe ever fully partner with the U.S., or will the European Union and NATO continue to downplay the necessity of military readiness?\u2014is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/tag\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11660,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/strategika-issue-56-the-defense-of-europe-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10306,"position":5},"title":"Strategika Issue 56: The Defense of Europe","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"European Defense Please read a new essay by my colleague, Angelo M. Codevilla\u00a0in Strategika. Europe was never a full partner in its own defense. The very question\u2014Will Europe ever fully partner with the U.S., or will the European Union and NATO continue to downplay the necessity of military readiness?\u2014is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10307,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10306\/revisions\/10307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}