Europe needs to change attitude to work, family and immigrants

New York

AS the United States economy slowly recovers, analysts across the political spectrum see little to cheer them from Europe. The optimists see the region's economy growing by just one per cent in 2015; many others fear that a triple-dip recession is in the offing. Germany is widely viewed as a healthy country whose prosperity helps compensate for Europe's weakness, yet over the past two quarters for which we have data, it has experienced no net growth at all. Predictions of decade-long deflation, low productivity and high unemployment are becoming conventional wisdom.

As important as good economic policies are, they will not fix Europe's core problems, which are demographic, not economic. This was the point made in a speech to the European Parliament in November by none other than Pope Francis. As the pontiff put it: "In many quarters we encounter a general impression of weariness and ageing, of a Europe which is now a 'grandmother', no longer fertile and vibrant." But wait, it gets worse: Grandma Europe is also getting dotty. She is, as the pope sadly explained in an earlier speech to a conference of bishops, "weary with disorientation". Some readers might regret the pope's use of language - we love our grandmothers, weary with disorientation or not. But as my Ameri…