From Spiegel Online, of all places, a nice lengthy article on how New Europe is performing economically. Spiegel takes their swipes in regards to corruption, which as we all know never happens in other free market economies, but are by and large fair and balanced.

The new countries of course have their problems and still only account for a small slice of EU-25 total GDP, but they are looked at with envy and suspicion.

What are some of the little things employed by these former communist countries as they continue to shine:

lower taxes, less regulation, more flexible labor markets

One nasty little quote from the article:

The largely uncompromising open-market economic course steered by eastern European countries is not in question for most of the population. Unions that might buffer some of the harsher winds of capitalism are practically non-existent. "They reek of socialism," many Latvians think. Under the former system, almost all labor organizations were synchronized weapons of propaganda to be wielded at will by their governments.