Found this interesting story:

- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533734/site/newsweek/

In a minor miracle, the euro zone is growing faster and creating more jobs than America.

Sept. 4, 2006 issue - Take a drive around Munich or Frankfurt, fly into any German airport or cruise the rust belt of the Rhine, and you will see the same thing—contractors in hard hats slapping up new buildings. Germans are building everything from offices to factories. For the first time since the mid-1990s, construction is adding to economic growth, not weighing it down. "Industry is investing in Germany again," says Heinrich Weitz, an analyst for the country's largest building-trade group, HDB.

In nothing less than a minor miracle, the euro zone is back. The Continent's major economies beat GDP expectations in the second quarter of the year, resulting in the strongest growth in six years. The euro zone grew almost 1 percent last quarter, outperforming the United States, Britain and Japan. The upshot is that the euro zone will likely grow about 2.5 percent this year—up from 1.3 percent in 2005. What's more, Slow Europe is now creating jobs faster than the United States: France and Germany in particular saw strong jumps this spring and summer.

And not a moment too soon—with growing signs of a U.S. slowdown, led by new evidence of cooling in the critical housing sector, the world economy can no longer rely on American consumers as the buyers of first and last resort. "I see a healthy rebalancing," says Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff. "For so long we were on one engine, and now that the U.S. is sputtering, we have Japan growing nicely and Europe is outperforming for the first time in recent history. For now, all the surprises are on the upside."

Even more impressive than the figures are the reasons behind this performance. For the first time in years, European consumers—not just companies—are fueling growth. Thanks to low interest rates and falling unemployment, consumer demand is up, savings are down and, for the first time in years, Europeans are hitting the shops, fueling further business investment in everything from new retail spaces to warehouses.