A Great Economic Power

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Institute for Supply management reported that manufacturing activity increased in December the 19th straight month of growth in manufacturing in the US. The Commerce Department also announced that factory orders also rose 1.2% in November. This is good news, for the supposedly vanishing American manufacturing base. Despite what some politicians would have you think, it seems that we still have a manufacturing sector, and it seems to have been growing, not shrinking for the past 19 months.

Most economic forecasters predict that the "failing Bush economy" will continue to grow at about 3.5% in 2005, and that unemployment will remain low as new jobs are created.

However, a look across the pond shows that our more enlightened European friends are not doing as well. The French government statistics agency Insee recently announced that the French economy did not grow at all in the 3rd quarter of 2004, that it expects the French economy to grow at .6% in the fourth quarter and at a rate of less than 2.1% for all of 2004, following up a weak 1% growth rate for 2003 (presumably hurt by the end of the profitable arms trade with a certain Iraqi dictator). The French (who have been so critical of the US) have a budget deficit of 3.6% of GDP (slightly less than the US). French unemployment stands at 9.9%.

However the most important point is how this affects the French people. France is a socialist nation, they have high taxes and plenty of wealth redistribution, policies America's Democrats would have the US adopt. But the bottom line is clear bad tax policy destroys jobs. French unemployment stands at 9.9%, almost twice the unemployment level in the US. Unfortunately this is not an anomaly, Europe struggles with double digit unemployment on a regular basis. Their economies can't grow, and they can't create jobs because of their burdensome taxes are regulations. Think about that the next time you hear a Democrat talk about a new government program that will "get the economy back on track" I don't think our nation wants to be on their track.

Timothy Burger