On a somewhat brighter note, Europe is set to release restated annual national account data this Friday. The new data incorporates ESA 2010 methodology that is meant to better capture the growing role of intangible assets and intellectual property (one of our favorite themes) and follows in the footsteps of the U.S. which began reporting comparable data a year ago. Capitalizing research and development investments is expected to be the largest contributing factor that results in GDP for various members of the European Union that is higher by up to 5%. More information can be found on Europe's statistical website, here.