Worse still, serious policy rows are looming. The Bush camp is threatening to withdraw U.S. troops from Kosovo and Bosnia just as the Europeans are determined to line up with Russia to protest Bush's pledge to build an anti-ballistic missile defense system. Transatlantic relations are in for a serious test, with no community of political affinity to smooth over the trouble spots. Not just financial markets are synchronized This should not be happening. The political tides in Europe and the United States have tended to flow in the same direction for an entirely logical reason.
Elections usually depend on the voters' level of economic contentment.
In a globalized economy, countries tend to follow each other into booms and recessions, so voters in most advanced countries are likely to feel similarly inclined to reward or punish their rulers. Of course, optimistic Europeans think that in their countries, with his lead of 300,000 in the popular vote, Mr. Gore would and should have won. On the other hand, pessimists, watching the way in which Germany's Neuer Markt is falling even faster than the Nasdaq , wonder whether Mr. Gore's fate simply foreshadows a recession that will return Europe's conservatives to power. Inc. All rights reserved.