O modelo europeu afasta investidores

A Forbes apresenta um artigo cheio de exemplos de investidores que deslocalizam os seus investimentos da "velha Europa", para longe das barreiras impostas pelo seu modelo económico e social. Eis alguns parágrafos:

Five years ago policymakers gathered in Portugal and established the Lisbon Agenda, an ambitious set of proposals aimed at turning Europe into "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy" by 2010. Yet growth on the Continent has instead been stymied by years of rigid labor laws, high taxes and welfare statism. So while China and the U.S. bump along at 9.2% and 4.4% annual growth, respectively, the 25 nations of the EU, collectively the world's largest economy, limps. What growth there is comes almost exclusively from new members in eastern Europe and the Baltics.(...)###

Germany, still struggling from problems associated with its 1990 reunification, is reeling from 20.5% unemployment in the east. In France unemployment is at 10%, with the buffeted government's growth aims hitting up against a public bent for socialist cushions; Morgan Stanley says "social unrest could become a serious issue" just ahead. And in Italy, already in recession, lawmakers are talking of dumping the euro altogether.
So companies and investors are seeking their fortunes outside these slow-growth, high-cost neighborhoods.(...)
The French National Institute for Statistics estimates that France has lost 1,000 jobs per year since 1995 to companies transferring operations to eastern Europe; more losses are expected. Rigid western European labor laws have forced companies to look for cost savings in Asia, too.(...)

Investors and economists say disinvestment will continue until European policymakers make radical changes in labor laws and corporate taxes.