Locusts, bloodsuckers, and European unemployment.

Brian M. Carney , editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe:

In 1965, government spending as a percentage of GDP averaged 28% in Western Europe, just slightly above the U.S. level of 25%. In 2002, U.S. taxes ate 26% of the economy, but in Europe spending had climbed to 42%, a 50% increase. Over the same period, unemployment in Western Europe has risen from less than 3% to 8% today, and to nearly 9% for the 12 countries in the euro zone....

In the U.S. and the U.K., a combination of tax cuts, labor-market reforms and deregulation starting in the 1980s broke the downward spiral in which the Continent still finds itself. In the 1990s, the U.S. added welfare reform to the mix. Unfortunately, the prospects for Europe are not particularly bright right now. German unions--and even some members of the German government--have in recent weeks taken to denouncing American capitalists as "locusts" and "bloodsuckers."

German unionists may well have the correct terms. They are just aiming them in the wrong directions.