If these reforms are to be sustained, social measures to underpin domestic stability will become necessary. A second unexpected consequence of the Asian crisis, therefore, is an expansion of state intervention. Although, conditions in Europe are different, the evolution of attitudes toward the United States is comparable. Steps taken by virtually all EU governments for the single currency amount to a general vindication of U.S. pro-business policies. Since the early 1990s, the central banks of France, Spain, Italy, and Britain have gained inde-pendence from their national governments, as the Bundesbank and others have done.
Polls reveal a deep public unease towards the globalization of business and the economy.
Two trends shed a potentially dark shadow over this apparently favorable dynamic. First, opinion polls reveal a deep public unease toward the globalization of business and the economy. The same may occur soon in Spain and Germany. Although the European left has lost its revolutionary rhetoric, the support it now receives reflects a growing public dissatisfaction with free market economics. A second trend has to do with the ultimate role of the euro, which European policymakers view as the decisive step that will give Europe the single voice it still lacks on the international scene.