The Silver Lining

For years, most talk about Western Europe's economy has been pretty gloomy. Growth has slowed in most countries, wages are stagnant, unemployment is stubbornly high, and consumers are miserly with their cash. Little wonder, then, that in France and Germany, the euro zone's largest economies, poor economic performance is in large part responsible for the sinking popularity of the countries' political leaders. Yet not everyone is hurting. In fact, many European corporations are raking in huge profits. According to business analysts FactSet JCF, the pretax profits of Germany's 30 top companies grew 69% in 2004, even as the country's gdp ...