Different parts of the world pose different sorts of challenge and threat. Even before the financial crisis of 2008, Europe had been struggling with low growth and high unemployment. The prolonged and intractable nature of these problems means that more and more economists are giving voice to the idea that competition with low-cost producers in Asia, in particular China, has contributed to the European economic malaise. This is a notion that was once shunned by orthodox economists, but that is becoming increasingly mainstream.
