Since the mid-1990s Britain has been able to look across the English Channel and compare sluggish Continental economic growth with relatively good figures in the British Isles. But now, " Germany, Europe's largest economy, has staged a powerful recovery over the past 12 months. Business confidence is close to record highs, and the number of people out of work has fallen by an impressive 670,000 since the beginning of 2006" (The Guardian, May 27, 2007).

The news is mostly good in other Continental countries as well. For many years European nations have largely been characterized by high unemployment, economic stagnation and resistance to needed reforms. But Michael Heise, chief economist at Allianz and Dresdner Bank in Germany, has recently written: "The EU expansion [to 27 nations] has spurred on the 15 oldest members . . . to revamp and reshape their economies to meet the challenges of the global market place" (International Herald Tribune, June 12, 2007).

EU-wide growth is predicted to achieve a figure of 2.7 percent in 2007. Germany grew by 3.6 percent in this year's first quarter.

Heise assures us that "the revival of Western Europe is by no means a threat to the United States." Maybe not now, but Bible prophecy shows that a coming European-centered superpower will challenge the United States and for a time it will dominate the globe. For further information, request our free booklets Are We Living in the Time of the End? and The Book of Revelation Revealed. (Sources: The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe.)