Why won't Europeans go shopping?

摘要

As the US subprime mess began to unfold, most European politicians, and many economists who should have known better, confidently predicted that this time, Europe would withstand the US slowdown. The hope, because it certainly wasn't experience talking, was that the impressive decline in European unemployment in recent years would give European consumers the confidence to carry on spending wen after their American cousins have decided to finally tighten thefr belts.