: Most observers ascribe the recent stagnation in Europe and her falling back behind the US-economy to insufficient and delayed deregulation and privatization, excessive social expenditure, a lag in new technology, some observers mention restrictive economic policy as well. The stagnation, however, affects the large countries primarily, while the northern ones tend to grow as fast as the United States. This study argues that one important explanation for the current economic problems is a strong worldwide trend towards uncertainty. The competitive edge of Scandinavian economies results from the fact that they managed to compensate this trend by a well-designed combination of education policy, technology policy, distribution policy and social policy. The US-policy succeeded primarily with expansive monetary and fiscal policy. The large European countries, in contrast, aggravated social uncertainty even more by an unsystematic and uncoordinated policy, so that the citizens, heavily afraid of reforms, rejected them forcefully.