Europe a lab for job economy

It is not just Europe, but the entire world that stands at a precipice. But because of the acuteness of the eurozone crisis, it is old Europe that is going to become a laboratory for the world economy.

But even beyond its shores, the question that is faced with the same degree of trepidation, from North Africa and the United States to Japan and China, is this: Can we create jobs fast enough? Fast enough not only to facilitate a productive labor market entry for what is the best-trained and largest generation of young people ever. Fast enough also to ensure that the rising degree of social protest and dismay does not boil over.

The demonstrations in Spain, in particular, make plain how high the pressure is. The country's leadership has made a courageous and determined attempt to reshape labor market policies quite radically. It has dismantled the remnants of corporatist welfare structures built under the Francisco Franco regime. Such courage ought to be rewarded, and rewarded promptly. But it is one thing to leave behind an unfortunate political and historical legacy and quite another to transition smoothly to a better-functioning national economy.