Free Republic

AS EVERY actor knows, it is easy to be typecast. The role assigned to Europe for the past decade has been that of sclerotic under-achiever: a slow-growing, work-shy and ageing continent that is destined to be left behind by the United States, China and India. Unnoticed by the audience, Europe, under new political leadership first in Germany and Italy and now in France and Britain, has changed the plot. Since the end of 2006 euro-area GDP has outpaced America's: in 2007, it should grow by 2.7%, ahead of both America and Japan. The euro is at new highs against the...

Yesterday, the pound and the euro hit their highest levels in a generation against the US dollar. The dollar, meanwhile, collapsed to a record low against an average of all the world’s major currencies. It is tempting to interpret the flight from the dollar in financial markets as the clearest, most objective, indicator of America’s relative decline. Europe has long been derided as an ageing, sclerotic continent, doomed to irrelevance in a world dominated by America and Asia. But could it actually be America, not Europe, that is failing to compete in the globalised world economy and is now threatened...

Dollar falls to record euro low The euro has benefited from higher interest rates The dollar has fallen to a record low against the euro and yet another 26-year slump against the pound. With investors fearful that the ongoing downturn in the US housing market will start to slow the economy, the euro rose as high as $1.3741 on Tuesday. The pound touched as high as $2.0274, as it continued its recent gains. The dollar's latest fall came after the key Standard & Poor's credit rating agency said it may downgrade $12.1bn (£6bn) in sub prime mortgage debt. Interest rate...

Borg: No euro membership for Sweden Sweden's new finance minister Anders Borg has said that Sweden will not join the euro in the foreseeable future. Borg made set out his position on the single European currency as he attended his first meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg. "I will say that we are prioritizing employment and making it profitable to work," Borg told journalists on his way into the meeting. Borg said he would also tell his European counterparts that the new Swedish government will concentrate on keeping the state finances in good order. Sweden rejected adopting the euro...