Poland and America heading in opposite directions

Poland and the U.S. are like two trains passing each other in opposite directions.

Poland broke the shackles of Soviet domination two decades ago with the rise of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity labor movement. Free for the first time since World War II, Poland cast off its yoke of government control and central planning in favor of an American-style free enterprise system.

Today, Poland is the European Union’s largest eastern economy, the only member of the 27-nation bloc to avoid a recession in 2009. While most of European economies are in the tank, Poland’s gross domestic product expanded by...