The United States economy continues to outpace growth elsewhere, but the gap has closed. Now growth is more evenly distributed. Growth quickly showed signs of recovery after the 2001 recession, but did not really pick up speed until the first quarter of 2003. And the economy as measured by GDP has shown healthy gains since then. While the U.S. maintains its position as the world's engine of growth, it is clear that this burden is now more evenly distributed with both Europe and Asia contributing.