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Is Europe just being dragged into the future or will it ever lead its own path again?

Today, as important as it is for America’s trade partners to open their economies to competition, it is even more necessary that they stimulate domestically to spur growth, benefiting everyone. This is especially the case with Germany.

For the traditional Western democratic world to be inspirational again it needs to show decisiveness and effectiveness. The US must come together, as does Europe.

Europe is about quality of life, America about changing life and China about changing lives.

In Europe, as the state is a large part of economic activity and life in general, the more paralyzed the Union, the less dynamic each Member.

The European Union: a effort to unite peacefully those who could not be united through force.

Europe’s strength has been quality manufacturing - can it reinvent its manufacturing in 3D and other innovations?

The memory of the West, the link between the past and the future, comes from Europe.

Can Europe maintain its high quality of life without reforming and fostering dynamism? Will technology help it progress without the pain of reforms?

Europe is focused on quality, America on quantity.

The construction of Europe makes it internally paralyzed. It is an unfederated union, without the possibility of clear leadership. This excludes Europe from world politics at a time of need. It also condemns Europe to a standstill at home. A permanent vacation?

LA is disappointing as a tourist, but a fabulous life. New York, Paris, London and Rome are brilliant to visit and difficult to live in.

Maybe more than in any other environment, Europe empowers individual projects of beauty and physical human connection. On the other hand, their influence and reach is limited. This is as opposed to what comes out of America and East Asia: digital and punchy.

Europe lives in the past - California in the future.

Today, Europe is the keeper of traditional western culture. America is having an identity crisis and Britain is becoming an island again. This makes it all the more important for Europe to come together.

At heart the French protest authority, yet want the state to take care of them.

Business in America: risk on. 

Europe: risk off.     

Not taking chances is the riskier position.

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Europe is struggling with slow growth driving increasing fiscal issues. To reverse, it must increase spending, investment and innovation. Europe can only spend itself out of the hole it dug for itself. A necessary corollary is deregulation as well as fiscal and market consolidation. Only then can Europe regain political weight, providing it federates foreign policy too. It must overcome a provincial mindset to act on the world stage.

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