In recent years, Europe's economy hasn't been doing that well.
Britain's economy shrank unexpectedly in the three months to October.
Germany is facing a third straight year of economic crisis,
with most Germans increasingly worried about making ends meet.
They're unlikely to be able to get France's debt under control anytime soon.
It reached 3.3 trillion euros in June.
The main picture has been somewhat sad over the last few years,
that there has been little growth, just repeated shocks that the economy struggles to rebound from.
Tom Fairless is our global economics correspondent.
Are there any countries in Europe that are doing well?
Certainly Sweden does stand out.
Sweden.
The economy is growing at roughly the same rate as the US, which is to say, pretty fast.
The Nordic country that was once synonymous with big government is doing something else.
Sweden, from an American point of view, from most countries' point of view,
is the sort of gold standard of democratic socialism.
What I found through this reporting is that actually what drives
the dynamism is the extent to which it's rolled back the state.
That's what a lot of the economists I spoke to said,
that in the 20 or 30 years since they've been liberalizing, incomes have doubled.