Articles by Johnny Munkhammar
Reform Lessons for the United States
The old expression "all politics is local" may be quite true for the American political debate, except for the fears of terrorism and of losing jobs to China and India. But there would be very good reason for US policymakers...
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A European Ownership Society
As the EU Finance Ministers met on February 27, they expressed worries about profits rising faster than wages in Europe. The conclusion was that the current global economic boom mostly benefits owners rather than workers. This led the German...
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Casino Royal, Gambling With Jobs
The Socialist candidate for President of France, Ségolène Royal, recently presented her Election Manifesto with 100 proposals. It includes an increase in the minimum wage, higher taxes, more regulations in the labor market, expanded public welfare contributions, s
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Sweden Has Learned From Its Own Lesson
The centre-right four-party Alliance won the elections in Sweden this Sunday, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule. The Alliance promised to do stepwise market-oriented reforms, as opposed to the Social Democrats promise to do nothing. What conclusions can be...
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Party Central
Sweden - where the ruling Social Democrats have been in power for 65 of the last 74 years - holds general elections in September. As the voting approaches, the need for economic reform in the Scandinavian country is becoming greater....
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Reform the Works
EU leaders say they want higher economic growth and more jobs. They talk the talk about the need for reform. But in most of western Europe, they have failed to walk the walk. This is especially true when it comes...
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The Kids Are Not Alright
The latest figures from Eurostat (the EU's official statistics agency) on youth unemployment are depressing for Europeans. On average, in the EU in 2005, unemployment for people under the age of 25 was 17 percent. In the US, by comparison,...
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Europe's Greatest Success
Ten years ago I watched a TV film that was supposed to be a documentary from the future, showing how Europe had evolved during the first decades of the 21st century. It was, to put it mildly, pessimistic. Among other...
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Hope for France? You Bet
The French government obviously failed miserably with the one minor liberalizing reform proposal it has pursued. Facing demonstrations by trade unions and young people demanding "Regulation!" and life-long protection for jobs they don't even have, the government ba
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Europe's Patriot Games
For the last several weeks, French cities have seen their biggest demonstrations in decades as millions of mainly young people take to the streets. This uprising against (a very minor) French labor market reform is happening at the same time...
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