Advantage Europe

Some good news for once: "Why Europe will win," reads the headline in *Newsweek*'s international edition. "Contrary to the widespread cliché of American dynamism versus European economic stagnation, over the past decade Europe's top companies have beaten America's (not to mention Japan's) by an often substantial margin," writes the New York weekly. "Despite the rise of China and the rest," Europe has managed to sustain "at about 17 percent, its share of world exports since 2000, while America's has fallen by more than a third, from 17 to 11 percent." The European businesses in the top 3,000 global companies also have a better record of growing profits — "at an average rate of 13 percent a year over the decade from 1998 to 2008, almost double the 7 percent rate for their U.S. rivals" — and they are more adept at seizing markets beyond their borders. Newsweek notes that 39% of European companies' sales are to countries outside of the EU, whereas foreign markets only account for 30% of sales by American and Japanese companies.