Economy

A range of experts found lessons in the Danish model, and agreed that the unwillingness of the American officials to look abroad has narrowed the discussion of policy options in the U.S.

Danish policy-makers have made a conscious decision not to rely on low-wage labor.

Public policy choices are both the building blocks and the reflection of the kind of society in which people want to live: “It’s obvious that in Denmark, both the public and business leaders regard the state as a partner,” said Stine Bosse, who until recently served as the group CEO of TrygVesta, Denmark’s largest insurance company. “A strong state is not just something you have to live with…it’s something we reckon is pretty important, a positive thing for business.”

The first installment in Remapping Debate's new series on how different Danish choices are from those being made in the U.S.

Get ready for spending cuts beyond the debt ceiling agreement. That deal only calls for spending caps, not spending floors. The regular appropriations process must be completed by Oct. 1, or else government operations shut down. The GOP will insist that those bills impose additional cuts. Any Democratic assertion of resistance will have no credibility in face of documented pattern of surrender. Oops. Turns out that costs and benefits of giving in to debt-ceiling hostage-taking were hopelessly miscalculated.

But belief that gains will eventually supplant short-term pain with broadly shared prosperity (as once was the rule) isn't necessarily so.

But belief that gains will eventually supplant short-term pain with broadly shared prosperity (as once was the rule) isn't necessarily so.