George Soros is heartened by current efforts to revive growth inthe world's major economies, the hapless eurozone being the oneexception.

“All of the looming problems for the global economy arepolitical in character,” he writes.

The U.S. is showing its muscle as the developed world'sstrongest economy on several counts:

• Shale energy is an important competitive advantage inmanufacturing in general and in petrochemicals in particular.
• The banking and household sectors are deleveraging.
• Quantitative easing has boosted asset values.
• The housing market has improved, with construction loweringunemployment.
• The fiscal drag exerted by sequestration is about toexpire.

“More surprising, the polarization of American politics showssigns of reversing,” Soros writes, the fever apparently havingbroken after the recent government shutdown.