Why Europe is less panicked about the stock market

Susie James, a retired small business owner in Wales, has observed the recent swings in the stock market with only mild interest. Like many Europeans, James and her husband hold a significant percentage of their savings in cash, the product of a long-held distrust of the market. "I'm old enough to have lived through two major crashes," said James, 67, recalling the market panic on Black Monday in 1987, when her father lost 10,000 British pounds (about $38,000 today), and the 2008 financial crisis. Her retirement account has earned less than major stock indexes, and to her, investing in the…