Europe

There is a realignment of politics underway in the UK and most other developed countries; in the UK it is now almost complete, thanks in no small part to Brexit whereas in some other countries it is still happening; Brexit did not cause this realignment, but it was caused by it.

“Laissez-faire” Stockholm seems to fare better than locked-down New York.

Contrary to the U.S., where President Trump and Governor Cuomo and countless other political figures compete for the attention of their constituents and populace and underlings, the Swedish experience has been one of decentralized decision-makers and arms-length officials calling the shots.

The response by the EU has been mind boggling: instead of relaxing its tight rules, it has doubled down, and in recent years expanded its War on Innovation ever more.

There’s a neglected dark side to the Swedish welfare model that its “democratic socialist” admirers seldom mention.

There is one final group in this fight for Europe’s future, which gives at least some hope.

Fortunately for its citizens, but unfortunately for those who think Sweden is still socialist, the Swedish government, more or less by universal consensus, turned sharply back toward capitalism beginning in about 1995.

The best solution would be if the British authorities followed a policy of laissez-faire.

Despite some of the world’s highest taxes, Europe’s welfare states are fiscally unsustainable, suffering from slowly worsening structural deficits.

For years, I've heard American leftists say Sweden is proof that socialism works, that it doesn't have to turn out as badly as the Soviet Union or Cuba or Venezuela did. But that's not what Swedish historian Johan Norberg says in a new documentary and Stossel TV...

A transport revolution is occurring all around Europe thanks to deregulation measures by the EU and national governments, which makes it increasingly possible for private businesses to enter railway and bus markets and make it evident that transportation doesn’t have to be – or better said, shouldn’t be, a public good provided by the state.

Even when the welfare state has worked its way through the economy, Swedes are poorer than Americans.

The recent vote within the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union has implicitly once again raised the issue of the right of self-determination through secession. In other words, do individuals have a right to determine under which political authority they shall live and have representation?

British companies can even outperform those outside of the EU—if the British government does not compromise on the principle of liberty. That is the big ‘if.’ But the Brexit has opened up a huge opportunity for a freer, more prosperous Britain.