German unemployment rises to 10.4% (East Germany has 19% rate) but if you listen to the German media you'd think this was no biggie. All that is wrong in Europe is wrong with this number. Can you imagine what would happen here if we had 10% unemployment? Will the ECB drop rates? No, they don't think anything is wrong. France is at 9.6% REPORTED, and so on. EU is going protectionist with underutilized capacity at record highs. They are supporting businesses that are losing money (The French Jet sale), with everything from cars to washing machines getting phony orders. This is potentially bad for us because they can't buy our products if they aren't working.