We all live in the global marketplace now | Certain ideas of Europe | Economist.com

I am interested to see any follow-up coverage after Mandelson’s speech tonight. In the excerpt’s here on the Economist.com’s blog, he makes a powerful case for the need to avoid any temptation to slip into (even more?) protectionism as the western world shivers on the edge of recession. He is, of course, absolutely right (or should that be "correct"? No, I think it’s "right"; in every sense.) Mandelson uses some powerful statistics to show how much emerging markets have emerged over the last number of years. He also shows how this has not been to the detriment of Europe.

I need to review my opinion of Peter Mandelson, which hitherto has been less than favourable. I clearly haven’t been paying sufficient attention to his work in Europe.