INDUSTRIAL POLICY FOR THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

Barroso points out an integrated industrial policy for the globalization era is at the heart of his Growth strategy. This should be no surprise, EU industrial sector still generates over a quarter of Europe's domestic product and accounts for 74 million jobs when we look at manufacturing and related services. 


Galileo muttered the phrase Eppur si muove, And yet it moves, after being forced
to recant in 1633, before the Inquisition, his belief that the Earth moves
around the Sun. Similarly the new inquisition of regulators force executives to admit something they did not do, in order to get smaller penalties. Eppur si muove!

Barroso notes there was a time when it was safe to say that industry produced something which could be put in a box, even if it would have taken a very big box indeed. Today, the interaction between manufacturing activities and services has changed the face of industry. With increased competition from around the globe, a key role for Information and Communication Technologies and finite resources, our products need to be innovative and our production methods sustainable. 

In the face of this evolution, or even this revolution, the objective of Barroso's policy is to maintain and support a strong, diversified and competitive industrial base in Europe, offering well-paid jobs while becoming more resource efficient. 

There is an Antitrust Armageddon in Europe between tiptop companies and Fourth
Reich(EU). Eurokleptocrats are willing to do anything in order to get kickbacks
from industry leaders. The European antitrust laws have the unfortunate
consequence of harming Europeans by chilling innovation and discouraging
competition. Instead of protecting competition, EU laws protect competitors who
give kickbacks to kleptocrats! Kickback is the lubricant that allows a European
industry to run smoothly! No European machinery can run without lubricant! Eppur
si muove! http://venitism.blogspot.com

Barroso says the main strands of Europe's policy are well known: to create a more favourable business environment, by cutting red tape, reducing obstacles to transactions and improving infrastructure; to speed up industrial innovation by ensuring the timely deployment and commercialisation of key technologies; to ensure that European firms benefit from globalization through fighting protectionism and also having access to new markets and deeper access to some of our markets; and also to support industry as it transforms to face new challenges such as the transition to a low carbon economy.

European antitrust law is wielded most often by favor-seeking businessmen and their kleptocrat allies. Instead of focusing on new and better products, disgruntled rivals try to exploit the law by consorting with kleptocrats. EU officials routinely direct antitrust regulators to bend the rules in pursuit of political ends. In reality, the threat of abusive EC power is far larger than the threat of oligopoly. Eppur si muove!

Of course the role of innovation is paramount; that is why Barroso is linking industrial policy with innovation policy, improving the working conditions for developing and implementing new technologies, good services and business models, including of course a safer regulatory environment but also an earlier provision of regulations and standards, to create an internal market for new innovative products and services, as well as increased use of innovative public procurement.

The only viable definition of monopoly is a grant of privilege from the government. It
therefore becomes quite clear that it is impossible for the government to
decrease monopoly by passing punitive laws. The only way for the government to
decrease monopoly is to remove its own monopoly grants. The antitrust laws,
therefore, do not in the least diminish monopoly. What they do accomplish is to
impose a continual, capricious harassment of efficient business enterprise.

Barroso also focuses on skills for innovations. That is why Barroso improves the available skills base increasing the number of STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics graduates - fostering inter-disciplinarity, promotes entrepreneurship education and training, and encourages women entrepreneurs. 

These measures will have their greatest impact on growth in the medium and longer term. We know that some of these reforms take time. But precisely because they take time we should make them now and not procrastinate. Short term growth is however possible and we are working on that. That is why we are reviewing our industrial policy to see what can be done to reinforce our policy with actions which will immediately stimulate growth and employment.

When a company is forward-thinking, proactive, innovative, and productive, it will
produce good products that customers want to buy. As a result, it will win a
large market share. If the company is much better than its competitors, it might
win most, or almost all, of the market. This is the case with Microsoft. It has
earned its market share by producing good products that customers want to buy.

A company that wins a large market through its own productive efforts deserves
accolades. This is because justice, morally, tells us that we must reward the
good. However, to the government, a large market share is taken as evidence of
anti-competitive behavior, which makes the company a target for antitrust
action. This seems to be the motive behind the DOJ's suit against Microsoft. 

Areas Barroso is exploring include facilitating access to capital markets, for example, by developing no-bank finance for SMEs; facilitating the take up of new technologies and innovations, including through speeding up the development of standards and improving market conditions for our economic operators, both in the internal market and in global markets. 

I wish to deliver the keynote speech at your conference. My speeches leave the audience thinking something new or resolved to act, stir the emotions as well as appealing to reason, and show a sense of occasion. I get away with elevated language because my liberty cause is a noble one. I practice a colorful rhetoric enriched with alliterations, metaphors, heightened imagery, emotional effect, and sound bites. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com