<a href='http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=568&e=25&u=/nm/20040615/bs_nm/financial_wealthy_dc_4' target='_blank'>Yahoo! article</a>

My favorite quotes

Quote:North America as a whole saw growth in high-net-worth individuals of 13.5 percent and Asia 8.4 percent.

In China, which saw surging economic growth last year, the number of high-net-worth individuals rose 12 percent and India 22 percent.

Europe showed a more modest increase, with the number of millionaires up 2.4 percent to 2.6 million.

"That partly can be attributed to the more restrictive European income-tax policies which impeded personal wealth accumulation," the report said.

Europe becomes more irrelevant every year. Alcatel is a joke. Airbus is heavily subsidized to be able to compete. Ericcson and Nokia are good firms...but they've got global investments to make up for the shortcomings at home. Britian is in fair shape but they don't follow the continent very closely.

Slowly but surely Europe is getting what they deserve w/ their economic policies.

DrTorch Wrote:<a href='http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=568&e=25&u=/nm/20040615/bs_nm/financial_wealthy_dc_4' target='_blank'>Yahoo! article</a>

My favorite quotes

Quote:North America as a whole saw growth in high-net-worth individuals of 13.5 percent and Asia 8.4 percent.

In China, which saw surging economic growth last year, the number of high-net-worth individuals rose 12 percent and India 22 percent.

Europe showed a more modest increase, with the number of millionaires up 2.4 percent to 2.6 million.

"That partly can be attributed to the more restrictive European income-tax policies which impeded personal wealth accumulation," the report said.

Europe becomes more irrelevant every year. Alcatel is a joke. Airbus is heavily subsidized to be able to compete. Ericcson and Nokia are good firms...but they've got global investments to make up for the shortcomings at home. Britian is in fair shape but they don't follow the continent very closely.

Slowly but surely Europe is getting what they deserve w/ their economic policies.

Imagine where they would be without the benefit of the European Common Market.

Indeed, a lot of people in Western EU nations are none too pleased that comparative advantage dictates that all of their capital and many of their jobs are flowing towards the emerging economies of Eastern Europe. There's a strong backlash against the EU in many countries, and the so-called "democracy deficit" in which EU institutions are remarkably unaccountable to EU citizens means that this could spell conflict and trouble down the road.

Ultimately I believe that France's effort to build an E.U. empire in its own image, designed to counter the U.S. empire, will fall flat on its face. In the end, the E.U. will be nothing more than a glorfied trading block, which is how it should be. The nation-state will remain the primary political unit in international affairs.

Many European nations, including France and Germany have unemployment rates around the 7-10 percent as well.

I lived in Germany for four years during the '90s. They have by our standards an extravagant social system, all imposed by law. The average worker gets 6 weeks paid vacation a year, and some get a thirteenth month's salary every year. They have full medical benefits, whether employed or not, though nobody depends on that if they can afford private health insurance. They have generous unemployment benefits. Opening hours for businesses are defined by law, and the 24/7 routine we are used to here is virtually unknown. Business is heavily taxed AND required to give very generous benefits to their employees. Firing an employee is unheard of, except in truly extreme instances. It is a kind of social paradise except for one thing: They can't afford their system. They cannot compete world wide since their goods are so expensive. It is impossible to own a home there unless you are rich. It is not really possible to accumulate wealth because of the very heavy rates of taxation to support the benefits they give themselves. They are not business friendly, so not many new businesses start up there. The entrepreneur is hardly known.

The same is true more or less throughout Western Europe. They cannot change their systems due to the social uproar that would result and due to the leftist tendencies of the ruling classes, yet neither can they compete worldwide, especially againt the Orient. So yes, the much vaunted EU will not likely realize its ambitions. In fact, given its tendency to want to micro-manage each and every aspect of life there, I suspect they will become even less able to support their social systems there.