Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Today must be...

...graph day at BOWG. This one is from The Wall Street Journal Paul Krugman's blog. It illustrates how Europe has closed the unemployment gap with the United States in recent years (my emphasis):

More detailed analysis shows that the remaining gap comes from lower employment rates in Europe for the young and old; prime-age workers, especially men, are if anything more likely to be working in Europe.

And you should note that this European performance comes despite the fact that tax levels and levels of social benefits are vastly higher than they are here. Any US politician proposing even a partial move in Europe’s direction would be accused of being a job-killer. Somehow, though, the jobs survive.

Oh, and as many people have noticed, America now has European levels of joblessness without a European safety net. We’re definitely leading in the misery race.

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