An American Concept: Crushing Debt

Commenting on the European crisis – because this has gone well past being one that can be termed “Greek” – the New York Times cited a senior U.S. official on the significant role the U.S., including Obama himself, played in getting Europe’s leadership to agree to a bailout approaching one trillion. One particularly telling quote… The U.S. officials began talking to their counterparts about an American concept: overwhelming force. “It’s all about psychology,” said the senior official. Funny how these things work, isn’t it? In response to its own debt crisis, the U.S. mirrors the failed Japanese experiment in quantitative easing, except that we look to “fix” the flaw in that experiment with the overwhelming force of trillions upon trillions of unsupported spending, in the process making the idea of unleashing a money flood an “American concept.” Europe, desperate and without the advantage of the time...