The mixed blessing of a return to global growth.(Letter From Washington)

For nearly the past decade, the hanging international economic policy question has been what will happen when the United States stops growing faster than the rest of the developed world. Through the Asian and Russian financial crises, the creation and depreciation of the euro, and the seemingly unending decline of the Japanese economy, the U.S. economy has been the best-performing major economy. And in current forecasts, it seems the United States is prepared to take the lead on growth and imports again in 2004. As a result, in now-tired phrases, the U.S. economy has served as the