The Economist

Dear Reader,

For years leaders in continental Europe have been told by the Americans, the British and even The Economist that their economies are sclerotic, overregulated and too state-dominated, and that to prosper in true Anglo-Saxon style they need a dose of free-market reform. But the global economic meltdown has given them the satisfying triple whammy of exposing the risks in deregulation, giving the state a more important role and (best of all) laying low les Anglo-Saxons. While Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel now heap scorn on laissez-faire capitalism, both Gordon Brown and Barack Obama have been markedly more polite about the continental model. Indeed, a new European pecking order has emerged, with statist France on top, corporatist Germany in the middle and poor old liberal Britain floored. This week we look at how this has come about—and argue that the new order will not last.

Here are some other pieces from this week's issue you might also be interested in. You can click straight through to each one and read it online at Economist.com using the links below.


John Micklethwait
Editor in Chief


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THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS:

Inflation is bad, deflation worse
Why you should still concentrate on the greater of two evils

Thatcherism, 30 years on
Bagehot looks at her legacy in Britain

Can Fiat change the car industry?
A revolution that began in Italy

Barack Obama and the Supreme Court
A swing to the left?

The first great ghost hunter
Hans Holzer, cataloguer of spooks, has passed over to the Other Side