The Deadman Night Rider

A forum for evening students of the SMU Dedman School of Law and other outlaws..

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Interesting stat

Sometimes you read an article and some little detail jumps out that seems more important than the real thrust of the piece. Check out this article in the New Republic on a proposed EU speculation tax. A tax on financial transactions is interesting and all, but here is what leapt out:

[O]nly about 18 percent of Europeans invest in the market (compared to 40 percent of Americans).

I'm sure there are alot of reasons for this, but probably one of them is a lesser need to save for retirement and so on due to the wider social welfare net. What this means, though, is that less than a quarter of Europeans have any direct financial stake in economic decisions their politicians make that affect the market. Anyone looking for 'root causes' of political differences between the States and the EU might want to start here...

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