In short, the Dutch economic order will have to move further towards the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism. Policies which point in that direction have begun to bear fruit. And such policies should not be construed, as many have chosen to, as a reinforcement of the Rhineland model. Quite the contrary. If The Netherlands still have a long way to go, that goes even more for those European countries, which are still firmly stuck in the Rhineland rut.
European unemployment is a man-made disaster.
Policy harmonisation may cause this blight to spread. According to conventional wisdom the co-ordination of economic policies is considered the key to creating employment. This belief is often professed by governments, which espouse unsuccessful policies. They say they fear that tax rates will suffer a race to the bottom. Harmonisation, though, is more likely to result in a race to the top.