Europe’s leaders are starting to talk, cautiously, about economic recovery. “Growth is expected to pick up in the second half of 2012 and gather speed in 2013,” Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, wrote in a Dec. 10 column in the Financial Times.
Sounds encouraging—but Europe Inc. isn’t buying it. From steelmakers to shampoo sellers, companies across the region are hunkering down for what they predict will be years of stagnation.
looking beyond borders 
I wouldn’t buy it either; the second half of 2012 is almost over and no one has seen any evidence of this supposed growth.