douglasmclloyd
26.07.04, 05:51
Europe's Capitalism Curtain
By Steven Pearlstein
Friday, July 23, 2004; Page E01
WROCLAW, Poland
A curtain has descended across Europe. On one side are hope, optimism, freedom
and prospects for a better life. On the other side, fear, pessimism,
suffocating government regulations and a sense that the best times are in the
past.
This is not the same "iron curtain" famously described by Winston Churchill at
the outset of the struggle against communism. But it is a psychological
barrier demarking the part of Europe that is embracing global capitalism, and
the one that wishes desperately that it would go away. This time, however, it
is the East that is likely to prevail. The energy and sense of possibility are
almost palpable here in this thousand-year-old city once attacked by the
Tartars and Napoleon, and ruled at various times by the Germans, Austrians,
Czechs and Hungarians. Although unemployment remains in double digits and
household incomes in Poland remain far below those to the west, Wroclaw has
the feel today of a hip and charming European city.
Money and companies are pouring in
