MUCH TO BE PESSIMISTIC ABOUT:

In Europe, economic pessimism takes hold (James Kanter, APRIL 30, 2005, International Herald Tribune)

The sick man of Europe, Germany, cut its already meager growth forecast for this year and next on Friday, while a slew of equally dire economic news from elsewhere illustrated that pain is being felt across Europe, even in the relatively dynamic services sector and in the better-performing economies, like Britain.

"Pessimism really is the order of the day," said Ken Wattret, an economist at BNP Paribas in London.

In Germany, the economy minister, Wolfgang Clement, cut 2005 growth forecasts to 1 percent from 1.6 percent, while in Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cut his country's growth expectations nearly in half, to 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile in France, the unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent in March - the highest since December 1999 - from 10.1 percent in February.

If they understood demographics they'd not be this sunny.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 30, 2005 8:56 AM