Mobile Europeans

Things are changing in Europe as I detailed in my recent Tactical Update. Tax rates are falling and deregulation is no doubt coming as well. Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post has an article about Nicolas Sarkozy, the front runner in this weekends French election. Apparently he wants all those Frenchmen who've fled to the friendlier economic climate of the UK to come home:

The British capital was, he said, a "town that seems more and more prosperous and dynamic every time I come here." More important, it had become "one of the great French cities." He understood, furthermore, that hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen had moved to Britain because "they are risk-takers, and risk is a bad word" in France. With distinctly un-English passion (some things never change) he pleaded with them:

"Come home, because together we will make France a great country where everything will be possible, where fathers won't fear for the future of their children, and where everyone will be able to make their plans come true, and be responsible for their own destiny."

The EU has ushered in the mobile European, who goes where the jobs are rather than waiting for the government to do something for them. This bodes ill for high tax, high regulation countries like France. Sarkozy has run on making changes to the French economic system; it'll be interesting to see how successful he is if elected. His opponent, Royal, is gaining a little in the polls.