The Bush administration's action may also have caught European leaders unawares.
Since Britain has caught up with European living standards by working harder, the European economic model holds few attractions for the chancellor.So Mr Brown has borrowed from America land of competition, enterprise and innovation in his policies to galvanise the supply side of the economy.
The downturn has caught both the European airline industry and the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, in ticklish positions.
It is this figure, easily the highest in the EU, that has caught the eye of its European colleagues.
The Federal Reserve has caught the mood of its European counterparts by raising its key interest rates by a quarter point.
It means the rest of European football has caught up with us — and we have to take that into consideration when we think about the future of the Premier League".
Now a European team has caught this moonlet in the act.
The crisis has caught the periphery of the EU - the new eastern European members - on the wrong foot.
Recently, Google has caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission and a number of European regulators for highlighting its own products in search results.
