{"id":10308,"date":"2017-06-21T11:47:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T18:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=10308"},"modified":"2017-06-27T05:18:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T12:18:26","slug":"the-e-u-experiment-has-failed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-e-u-experiment-has-failed\/","title":{"rendered":"The E.U. Experiment Has Failed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Image Credit: Barbara Kelley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Bruce Thornton
\nThursday, March 5, 2015<\/p>\n

The slow-motion crisis of the European Union is the big story that rarely gets the attention it deserves. Even an event like the recent terrorist attack in France that left 17 dead is often isolated from the larger political, economic, and social problems that have long plagued the project of unifying the countries of Europe in order to harness its collective economic power, and to avoid the bloody internecine strife that stains its history.<\/p>\n

On the economic front, the E.U.\u2019s dismal economic performance over the last six years was summed up in a December headline in Business Insider<\/em>: \u201cEurope Stinks.\u201d The 2008 Great Recession exposed the incoherence of the E.U.\u2019s economic structure, particularly its single currency, which is held hostage by the diverse economic policies of sovereign nations. The data tell the tale. The E.U.\u2019s GDP grew 1 percent in 2013, anemic compared to the U.S.\u2019s 2.2 percent. In December 2014, unemployment in the E.U. averaged 11.4 percent, while in the U.S. it was 5.6 percent. We are troubled by our labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent, a 36-year low. But in the E.U., it was 57.5 percent in 2013. Our recovery from the recession may be slow by our historical standards, but it is blazing compared to the E.U.\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The E.U.\u2019s economic woes have many causes, but intrusively regulated economies and outsized government spending on generous social welfare transfers are two of the most important. Despite the rebuke of such policies delivered by the recession, government spending as a percentage of GDP has actually increased in the E.U., from 45.5 percent in 2007 to 49 percent in 2013, even as many Europeans decry the harsh \u201causterity\u201d measures called for by countries like Germany. Greece, the E.U member increasingly in danger of being forced to exit the monetary union and thus risk its unraveling, has nonetheless raised its government spending from 46.8 percent in 2007 to 59 percent in 2013.<\/p>\n

As Josef Joffe of Germany\u2019s Die Zeit<\/em> newspaper summarized in January, \u201cThese ailments are deeply embedded in economies that lag behind on investment, innovation and competitiveness . . . Europe as a whole is beginning to look like Greece writ large. But the long-term data whisper to Europe as well as to Greece: Reform or decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

To continue reading: http:\/\/www.hoover.org\/research\/eu-experiment-has-failed<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce Thornton Thursday, March 5, 2015 The slow-motion crisis of the European Union is the big story that rarely gets the attention it deserves. Even an event like the recent terrorist attack in France that left 17 dead is often isolated from the larger political, economic, and social problems that have long plagued the […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Gg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7752,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-failure-of-the-e-u\/","url_meta":{"origin":10308,"position":0},"title":"The Failure of the E.U.","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ Defining Ideas The European Union has long excited American progressives, who want the United States to model itself after the European body. As each year passes, it has become difficult to understand this admiration. These days the E.U. acts more and more like a bloated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Defining Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Defining Ideas","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/defining-ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4856,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-history-has-no-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":10308,"position":1},"title":"Why History Has No End","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 1, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Islamic rage and Western disunity show that reports of history's demise are greatly exaggerated. by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal Writing as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Francis Fukuyama famously announced the \u201cEnd of History.\u201d The world, he argued, was fast approaching the final stage of its political evolution.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2003"","block_context":{"text":"October 2003","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2003\/october-2003\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3559,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/anglo-american-alliance\/","url_meta":{"origin":10308,"position":2},"title":"Anglo-American Alliance?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The British have basically been defeated in the South.\" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner We've come a long way from the 2003 British lectures about American obtrusive Ray-Bans and Kevlar losing what British soft hats and smiles had won. That quote about defeat from \"a senior U.S. official\" about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2007"","block_context":{"text":"August 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/august-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4400,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/anti-anti-americanism-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10308,"position":3},"title":"Anti Anti-Americanism","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson American Enterprise Online An entire industry has arisen to account for the recent anti-Americanism. In the case of the Europeans, the end of the Cold War lessened the need for subsidized American protection, emboldening them to caricature Americans as fat and materialistic. Did envy arise because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2005"","block_context":{"text":"May 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/may-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2825,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-world-likes-us-it-really-likes-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":10308,"position":4},"title":"The World Likes Us, It Really Likes Us!","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com Watching Obama\u2019s recent journeys to Europe and Latin America, I was reminded of actress Sally Field\u2019s embarrassing acceptance speech at the 1985 Academy Awards: \u201cI've wanted more than anything to have your respect,\u201d she gushed to her colleagues, adding in the same needy vein, \u201cI\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4361,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/security-threats-warm-our-allies\/","url_meta":{"origin":10308,"position":5},"title":"Security Threats Warm Our Allies","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, is busy trying to strengthen the American alliance. In recent months, members of his government have announced new joint military arrangements with the U.S. and announced to the South Koreans that, unlike Japan, they are not to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2005"","block_context":{"text":"June 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/june-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308"}],"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=10308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10326,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions\/10326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}