New York Times
September 12, 2011
It's not the cultural differences that matter; it's the economic policies and directions that a country takes.
Take Finland, which is considered the most "aggressive Scandinavian" today. Finland experienced a serious recession at the end of the 1980s: the excesses of a deregulated financial services sector came to a head just as the global economy was suffering a downturn and Finland’s trade with the Soviet Union was collapsing. In those testing times, Finland opened up the economy, liberalizing important sectors that used to have significant restrictions to market entry. This helped to reshape an economy that had been based on the principles of economic nationalism into an economy with free and open markets. In 1995, Finland became a member of the European Union.
Greece’s economy today is exactly where Finland’s was 20 years ago. Southern Europe, and Greece in particular, are struggling to modernize its economies, open domestic markets to transparency, and implement good and efficient regulation.
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