Europe, if you are a stock investor, is now bigger than the US. The landmark, passed last week, has been achieved despite the retirement of a net EU107.1bn (£72.4bn) in European equity over the past two years, according to Citigroup (NYSE:C - news). Its import goes far beyond the noise over the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance rules.

That said, there are caveats. First, the definition of “Europe” is one that economists, market analysts, or even geographers would not normally recognise. It covers all of “emerging Europe” - including Turkey and Russia. This is “Europe plus Siberia and Anatolia”. By crossing the Urals, “Europe” includes Russia’s fuel reserves. By crossing the Bosphorus, it gains the Turkish economy, currently growing at more than 6 per cent. The population of this “Europe” is about 2.5 times that of the US. North America, including Canada and Mexico, might be a better comparison.

[1] Yahoo!: European stocks top US