BEWARE ANGLO - AMERICAN EUPHORIA

The genuine virtues of the liberal market model need to be kept entirely separate from the mythical US 'new paradigm'. As seen from the European continent, the much-vaunted British "third way" is but a variant of a single Anglo-American liberal market economic model, which is ranged against the corporatist Franco-German or "Rhenish" model. A fascinating lecture by Adair Turner, outgoing director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, at the London School of Economics throws light on more measurable aspects of the debate. His first finding is that similarities of outlook between the US and Britain still hide big differences in performance. If you look at output per head of population, the US is well ahead of Europe, and Britain remains behind both France and Germany. There was such a thing as the Thatcher effect in the 1980s. But what it did was stabilise the previously growing gap between Britain and continental countries.