mr president if you were to list the countries with the wealthiest citizens the states with the highest per capita gdp in the world you would be struck by the fact that a lot of them are very small
the top ten is dominated by microstates liechtenstein luxembourg brunei jersey and so on
the first big state to make it into the list of wealthy countries is the united states because it pulls off the extraordinary trick of governing itself like a confederation of statehoods devolving enormous legislative and fiscal autonomy to its constituent parts
this is why it is so tragic to hear only yesterday the new president of the european council talking about the need for european economic governance in response to the financial crisis in greece
it is precisely when government becomes bigger and more remote that it becomes more inefficient and more wasteful and more corrupt
if colleagues doubt that then i suggest they look around them
