"History's Has-been"

Columnist Robert J. Samuelson picks up on the graying-of-Europe meme: "Europe as we know it," he writes, "is slowly going out of business."

Samuelson's theme is that "It's hard to be a great power if your population is shriveling." Europe's economy is faltering, European majorities don't want to reduce the social benefits that are straining their economies, and now an increasing number of European societies want to reduce immigration as well.

"All this is bad for Europe -- and the United States," he writes. "A weak European economy is one reason that the world economy is shaky and so dependent on American growth. Preoccupied with divisions at home, Europe is history's has-been."