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November 17, 2004
Cowboy Capitalism
This weekend I finished Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Realities by Olaf Gersemann. As the title suggests, Gersemann, a German financial reporter, takes on many misconceptions relating to comparisons between the U.S. and European economies.
The book was informative and well worth the read, but it's also the type of book that makes me wish I had a photographic memory. While it's impossible to remember all the statistics put forth, I'll definitely have it on the shelf and ready to go as a reference.
Here is an example which was one of many that was surprising when I first read it. On page 59 Gersemann writes:
An American entrepreneur setting up a new business faces a one-time regulatory cost that amounts to 1.7 percent of the annual U.S. per capita income. In Germany the corresponding number is 32.5 percent. In France and Italy it is even higher at 35.6 and 44.8 percent respectively. Those numbers represent significant barriers to establishing new business enterprises
The magnitude of those numbers is shocking and is clearly part of the reason for higher unemployment rates in these countries relative to the U.S.
One other note, while the inside flap of the dust jacket states that the book is a "devastating rebuttal to the stereotypes promoted by the likes of Paul Krugman and Michael Moore", it is not a partisan attack on the American Left. In fact, when economist like Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz are quoted it's done in a positive way, using their expertise to backup the books' assertions.
Posted by Peter Mork at November 17, 2004 6:48 AM
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