Europe’s problems are more immediate. Encouraging news about Pfizer’s vaccine won’t change the European circumstances in near enough time to avoid what’s more and more looking like a real possibility for a retrenchment. In this case, COVID cases are a primary culprit, meaning how authorities over there are responding to their rise. As such, it has taken the shine off some of the more stimulus-laden optimism that had been shining particularly in Germany. That country’s ZEW survey, for example, had absolutely surged throughout the summer even though it has been clear the Germany or European economy hadn’t … (full story)