Monday, January 03, 2005

The US: Best to Invest?

Allan Laffer is not a very good writer, and oh so smug, but his piece in today's WSJ about the US being the best place to invest has some interesting nuggets. Overall, he contradicts himself a few times by basically saying we shouldn't panic, and then saying things could be better, but still don't panic.

Money quote:
Take a look around. Germany hasn't had a growth spurt since the 1960s when Ludwig Erhard was Bundeskanzler. France still has a mandated maximum workweek of 35 hours, a maximum income tax rate of 58%, a 1.8% annual wealth tax and government spending as a share of GDP greater than 50%. Finland, for goodness sakes, fines speeders a percentage of the speeder's income. Sweden, Denmark and Germany also fine speeders a percentage of their income, only with caps. Japan has had a stock market down by over 70% from its high in 1989 and both company and government unfunded liabilities in Japan are out of sight. Canada's economic policies are kooky and investments in Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, Southeast Asia and Africa are about as safe as running drunk blindfolded across the "I-5" freeway at rush hour.