Rubin To Europe: Grow, Team, Grow

The U.S. economy may be in a blissful state for now, but Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin see a new threat lurking overseas. No, not another currency crisis in an emerging market. This is a more worrisome development: a slowdown in the world's only other engine of growth--Europe.

The outlook for Euroland has turned abruptly from buoyant to bearish, and that has the two titans of economic policy nervously wondering how long the U.S. expansion can keep chugging along without falling into the worldwide slump. Greenspan voiced his concerns in testimony to Congress on Feb. 23. Rubin is so worried about stagnation on the Continent that he forced a discussion of pro-growth remedies to the top of the agenda when finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial countries met in Bonn on Feb. 20.