The EU Grew at a 2.4 Percent Annual Rate in the First Quarter

My guess is that many people reading this NYT article on Europe's GDP growth will think that its 0.6 percent rate was only slighly better than the anemic 0.5 percent rate the U.S. had just reported for the first quarter. Actually, it is a lot better, because the the European Union (EU) rate is a quarterly growth rate, while the U.S. rate is an annualized growth rate. If the EU growth rate were also annualized, it would be approximately 2.4 percent.

In Europe and many other parts of the world...