No entretanto, do outro lado do Atlântico

Aquilo que acontece nos EUA tem lições para todos nós, mas algumas delas têm de ser qualificadas, se se pretender utilizá-las para apoiar teses sobre a nossa situação. Por exemplo, o problema da infraestruturação, ou da sua renovação, não é o mesmo que existe em Portugal, quer pela intensidade do problema, quer pelas implicações diferentes do seu financiamento. Quanto muito, o que sucede nos EUA, ilustra até onde nos pode levar uma deriva conservadora ao longo de três décadas, assente num economia desregulada em todos os domínios. Os gráficos de comparação entre os EUA e a China são, em si mesmo, muito esclarecedores.

•  Jeff Sachs on the Deficit « The Baseline Scenario: "[...] “Policy paralysis around the US federal budget may be playing the biggest role of all in America’s incipient governance crisis. The US public is rabidly opposed to paying higher taxes, yet the trend level of taxation (at around 18% of national income) is not sufficient to pay for the core functions of government. As a result, the US government now fails to provide adequately for basic public services such as modern infrastructure (fast rail, improved waste treatment, broadband), renewable energy to fight climate change, decent schools, and health-care financing for those who cannot afford it. “Powerful resistance to higher taxes, coupled with a growing list of urgent unmet needs, has led to chronic under-performance by the US government and an increasingly dangerous level of budget deficits and government debt.” That’s part of a longer article, “Obama in Chains,” on the challenges presented by political polarization. Sachs seems generally sympathetic to Obama, although he criticizes him for his pledge of no new taxes on the “middle class” and ruling out a value-added tax."

• Op-Ed Columnist - What’s Wrong With Us? - NYTimes.com: "The great danger right now is that we will do exactly the wrong thing, that we’ll turn away from our screaming infrastructure needs and let the deterioration continue. With infrastructure costs so high (the needs are enormous and enormously expensive) and with the eyes in Washington increasingly focused on deficit reduction, the absolutely essential modernizing of the American infrastructure may not take place. That would be worse than foolish. It would be tragic."

• A Tale of Two Economies: The U.S. and China -- Seeking Alpha Comparações entre os dois países. Nota: clicar para aceder a versões maiores dos gráficos.

•  Layoffs, Short-Termism and Corporate Socialism -- Seeking Alpha