ABSTRACT

The 2007 financial crisis has caused worldwide losses amounting to about €5 trillion, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund. This chapter shows how the European Union, which employs different varieties of capitalism, and the US, which operates based on a competitive capitalist model, are coping with the current economic crisis. It develops a new index: the synthetic vulnerability index (SVI), which shows that the US position, initially, was worse than the Eurozone position in terms of social costs. The chapter discusses briefly the growth regime during the Fordist period. The 2007 financial and economic crisis produced painful outcomes in the labour market and society in general, both in the US and in Europe. In short, it caused a global recession, mass unemployment, high social costs, and enormous public debts in many countries. The most important disagreement, both within the EU and on a global level, concerns a financial transaction tax (FTT).