So who is responsible for the economic mess the U.S. finds itself in?
Easy question, says Sebastian Mallaby on the Washington Post opinion page, anti-Americanism is behind this. Especially European anti-Americanism:
Fearing that weapons of mass financial destruction lie hidden inside Wall Street palaces, the United States is mobilizing the big guns: a fiscal stimulus, sharp interest rate cuts, the Fed’s promise Friday to pump money into the markets. Meanwhile, Old Europe sits on its hands: The European Central Bank has left interest rates unchanged since June and has lectured governments about budget deficits.
A rightwinger is up in arms because a central bank cares about budget deficits. How could they …
While, between the lines, Mallaby acknowledges that the U.S. may have been somewhat wrong on Iraq, he is still convinced that pure anti-Americanism let a majority of Europeans oppose the war. Therefore the recent fall of the dollar must have anti-American roots too:
But surely at least some foreigners can see the tragic dimension here. The United States went into Iraq because, even if mistakenly, it wanted to rid the world of a menace. For this, the world hated it. The United States is throwing money at its economic difficulties because it sees a threat to its prosperity and also to the wider world. For this, the world scorns it. Investors are responding to America’s economic activism by dumping dollars the way they once dumped dot-com stocks. The would-be saviors of the world economy can no longer afford lunch in Europe.
Mallaby doesn’t quote any foreigner to somewhat found his assertions. Europe fighting inflation, while the U.S. heats it up, is just a way to prevent the U.S. from doing something good. Tax rebates in the U.S. are not some selfish act, but the U.S. caring for the "prosperity of the wider world".
… and it is the Europeans’ fault that Mallaby the Savior can no longer afford to dine in Paris.
This is whining to the highest degree. But Mallaby is not alone there. Yesterday Jerome deconstructed a Business Week piece titled:
More Fodder for the Yank-Haters – The spreading U.S. credit crisis is turning up the heat on Europe’s simmering anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism was already simmering because of the Iraq war, dislike for President George W. Bush, and mistrust of rampaging buyout firms. Now, Europe’s pundits and politicians are feeding public perceptions that ordinary folks will be left paying the bill for the financial missteps of big banks.
Not favoring tax payer bailouts of greedy big U.S. banks is anti-Americanism. It is that simple.
But don’t shove that away as just simple lunacy. The real target here are not Europeans, but U.S. progressives. This ‘anti-American’ concept will be adopted to any opposition against a bailout within the U.S. itself. It is anti-American to NOT socialize losses.
When Congress will act to nationalize a bankrupt Citibank, at a tax payer cost of a few $100 billion half of which will ‘compensate’ Citibank shareholders, the law will be named "Patriot Act III". To oppose it will constitute treason.
That seems to be the trend here and I suspect it will get worse – much worse. The fall of the U.S. economy into recession must be the result of European anti-Americanism, general anti-Capitalism, the progressives, Move-on.org, the ‘left’, etc.
It is simply impossible that the system itself is the problem.