Social democratic governments are "slouching" toward Eurosocialism? What is that? What makes whatever it is a form of socialism? Cheers, Ken Hanly Dennis R Redmond wrote: > On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Henry C.K. Liu wrote: > > > job insecurity prevents spending in favor of savings. Worse, Japan is > > falling victim to capital spending recession. No one is expecting the > > latest round of fiscal stimulus to revive sustainable growth in Japan. > > Well, the OECD says Japanese investment levels are still running at 27% of > GDP, way above comparable US and even EU levels, so the keiretsu are > obviously still banking on growth. My own feeling is that superlow > interest rates, plus massive public spending, plus bank bailouts, plus the > refinancing of Asia will eventually bestir the slumbering Godzilla of > Japanese consumer demand (good news for China, certainly). > > > The weak global economy is depressing EU exports and their economies, > > which are entering a phase of deflation despite the last two years' G7 > > coordinated interest rate cuts. > > Except that Germany does appear to be responding nicely to the ECB's rate > cut; growth and domestic demand were above expectations in the first > quarter, thanks also in part to the installation of Soc Dem governments, > which have stopped the trend towards Maastricht monetarism and are now > slouching towards Eurosocialism. Green and Left parties seem to have > done well in the European Parliament elections, a good sign. Also, the > relative weakness of the euro has given the EU a huge boost vis-a-vis the > US (the EU's trade surplus with the US collectively approaches that of > Japan). > > -- Dennis
