The US may have believed it had cornered the market for economic misery with back-to-back quarterly GDP drops of over 6%.

But, Europe refuses to be bested. What it may not be able to match in GDP, it has matched in unemployment, posting an 8.9% number for March.

The news may be a sign that the EU economy has not bottomed, which is bad news for the US since Europe imports so many goods and services from America. It is also not good for China, which relies so heavily on the US, EU, UK, and Japan as purchasers of its exports.

The theory that the recession is slowing loses more support every day.

Douglas A. McIntyre