I mocked up the state level returns, Europe and the US look virtually identical. And France and Italy are floating just under 8% right now, and remember that EU numbers are more comparable to the US u-6 figures that place current US unemployment at +13%.
The US numbers are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the EU figures come from Eurostat.
It's Spain and Portugal that make it look so bad, and the truth of that is that a lot of underground employment of people on unemployment rolls happens in those countries. Something like 10% + of the Spanish economy is underground. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
The European Union has recently decided to fight the encroachment of dollars into its nations' underground economies by printing 500 euro notes (about $500), which will be much more attractive to drug dealers and the like because the volume of cash necessary for large transactions will be reduced by 80 percent over the U.S. $100 bill. The euro is the new European currency that will soon become the single currency of Europe, replacing the French franc, German mark and Italian lira, among others. Professor Kenneth Rogoff of Princeton believes that the European decision to print 500 euro notes is an explicit effort to compete for the business of the underground economy. (The U.S. Government has not printed notes larger than $100 since 1946 and withdraws from circulation those that come into its possession.)
