While perusing Daniel Drezner's always stimulating blog,  I came across his praise of the book "The Power of Productivity:Wealth, Poverty and the Threat to Global Stability" by William Lewis, a management consultant and founding director of the McKinsey Global Institute.

The praise is well—deserved. Lewis examined nations around the world and concludes that much of the wealth variation among nations is due to  differing regulatory and legal constraints which inhibit labor and capital productivity across economies. He calls into question the overreliance on labor, zoning, and environmental laws to accomplish policy goals (such as redressing imbalances in income). Lewis repeatedly stresses that superficially these laws appear to help the middle and lower classes but in practice they have actually helped to impoverish them.
 
Contrary to many politicians who bemoan the loss of factory jobs, he points out the huge, yet unappreciated, impact that an efficient service sector can have on the economy and our lifestyles.
 
People who read this well—written book hopefully will consider his arguments when they go to the polls in November. John Kerry and the plaintiff's trial layer John Edwards are philosophically committed to erecting the same regulatory constraints that have harmed nations throughout the world. They are also beholden to special interest groups (such as the Service Employees International Union), trial lawyers, environmental groups   who would demand that a President Kerry enact the same prohibitions which have lead to Eurosceloris and the diminishment of European power.

Many academics and politicians characterize Americans as ill—informed boobs regarding foreign nations. They usually refer to our lack of sophistication on other cultures and our chronic inability to place ourselves in the shoes of others. These comments are typically condescending and amount to disparagement of Americans compared to more sophisticated worldly Europeans (or American college professors or New York Times columnists).

Well these critics may be right: we should look more closely at Europeans. We can witness their persistently high unemployment rates, their coming demographic demise due to an unwillingness to cut into their vacation time to have children, their rising unassimilated Muslim population that is turning Europe into Eurabia, their rising anti—Semitism, their lack of military preparedness, their support of tyrants around the world, their failing economies. Yes...we have a lot to learn from them and this book could be a beginning.
 
Posted by Ed  9 11 04