Decline of American Power?

[Christian Gregory]

>But the EU banking system is quite solid as a whole - telecom loans are a
small share of the entire system, e.g., and the large banks are globally
diversified, and backed by activist 
governments, who routinely tell the global
market to go f&^% itself. The EU banking system is more profitable and secure
than it was in 1990-93, for sure.

Even the WSJ admitted this. But growth for the last 3 years of 2, 2.9, and 0.6
hardly counts as stellar, and since Sept. of 2001, unemployment claims have
been rising between 100 and 200k a month. Even if the banking system is better
of than the WSJ says it is, does this change the bigger point? Te EU hardly
seems ready to take up the slack in world demand if the Euro strenghtens as
the US and Japan tank.

Christian