Manarin Investment Counsel, Ltd.

Of late, the winning political formula in Europe is simple:  Promise to ease heavy tax and regulatory burdens and shake up stagnant economies.

Across the Continent, the left is in disarray.  France's Socialist Party, which last won a Presidential election in the 1980s, refuses to move to the center -- and further sinks in the polls. 

Even in a recession so widely attributed to unfettered capitalism, socialists are unable to take advantage.  Consider the results last week of elections for the European Parliament.  Center-right parties gained in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and across most of eastern Europe. 

Before the Obama Administration Euro-fits the U.S. economy, Americans need to know that this [leftist] model saps economic dynamism and is nearly impossible to fix.

For decades, Europeans have been frustrated with low growth, chronic unemployment and fading competitiveness.  The answers tend to come from the right, and successful center-left politicians have embraced market reforms (think Tony Blair).  On the Huffington Post earlier this week, columnist Robert Kuttner bemoaned the left's collapse in Europe: "American progressives used to look longingly to Europe, with its stronger trade unions and its more comprehensive social protections.  Those are still there, but unraveling under assault."  Failure will do that.

From Monday's Wall Street Journal