Those Europeans like to make money just like Americans do but this year they've been holding off on making as much investments. What's going on? Today's featured commenter, Spy from the Land of Rainpeople, pithily explains:

There is a historical explanation for this. All the European venturers had already ventured overseas as far as they could go over the past centuries. They stopped venturing once further travel west/east would start meaning returning home to Europe.

So they stayed put on the west coast of America and the east coast of Asia. And they started looking for the venture opportunities that wouldn't require any further travel.

Whoever had stayed in Europe must have been already happy there and probably wasn't looking for a big gain.

I hope I made myself clear.