Plan B.

Olddude's "brick" is actually BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRIC

I know its more than just oil but oil is a good indicator of economic activity and here's a map that shows really the clash of national economies (The EIA had a better map earlier that showed that only the U.S. and China were using more than 10 million barrels a day, Japan was in 3rd at around 4 million). Still get part of the same feeling with this map.
International - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)



AGW- Nice "field work" observations in Europe during your tour. Great observations about the American work force. My friend in my bedroom town works in a place that finishes out specialized vehicles (don't say anymore because people might be able to track it down). Let's just say its not assembly plant work and each finished unit has a certain amount of customization to it. He's been there between 15-20 years and has seen increasing levels of turnover (this company runs ads--or at least they've done so within the last year--on late night cable channels trying to recruit workers). What my friend says is that a majority of the new people don't last long because of two reasons, 1) they get tried of working regular hours. When this place is busy with contracts its not uncommon to work 6 days a week, or 2) they simply don't have the skills to make and fit pieces into these vehicles (how many times does the company tolerate someone wrecking expensive pieces of s.s. or holding up/stopping production because pieces don't all work together). And this is in a basiclly middle-class metro were most people have finished high school. The talent pool is shrinking...