Fair points. I don't think I ever fully believed in "decoupling" anyway. And there are certainly credit restrictions in France (if "crunch" is overstated), and that in its turn is squeezing new home construction.

But Vittori seems to be suggesting European banks got hold of the most toxic waste around, and were almost suffering more than American banks. It depends somewhat, probably, on what circumference is "European": he seems to me to be counting in the UK when it suits him, jumping to the eurozone at other times. Likewise with exports, he picks up on France but forgets Germany.

It's really the question of comparing GDP growth US v Europe again that gets me most, though. When things are OK, we hear the US is zooming ahead. When that's not the case, and some of that extra US growth looks pretty much clearly exposed as slimy froth, we have to hear as a negative point that we have about the same growth rate.