Third-quarter economic quarter growth for the euro zone came in slightly higher than expected -- enough for politicians to be tempted to proclaim that growth is back. They should resist that urge and instead do a lot more to revamp, reinvent and re-energize the bloc’s growth engines.
If anything, the 0.2 percent growth rate released this morning by Eurostat confirms that Europe faces a significant growth deficit -- past, present and future. This should worry more than just the continent, which still faces the threat of a lost decade. It should also warn other countries of the headwinds facing the world economy as a whole. And if individual countries are pushed into following a "beggar thy neighbor" strategy, nothing less than disorderly deglobalization could threaten the world economy.
