Market insight: While America sleeps, Europe is catching up By Jason DeSena Trennert Published: July 16 2007 17:20 Last updated: July 16 2007 17:20 Despite some recent hand-wringing about subprime mortgages and a few wayward hedge funds, Wall Street feels pretty good about itself these days. The S&P 500 index has hit an all-time high and the US economy, by almost any measure, is cruising. The unemployment rate stands at 4.5 per cent, home ownership is at record levels, inflation is under control and long-term interest rates appear, at least at the moment, to be sustainably low. The economy’s animal spirits are revving up again, a familiar state of affairs for America’s capital markets over the past 25 years. Success, of course, tends to result in complacency and arrogance. America now, sadly, appears ready to take its economic hegemony, and its reliance on free markets, for granted. Quietly, “Old Europe” is in a race to cut corporate tax rates and embrace the spirit of open market...
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