The idea that the US is shouldering the burden of solving the world's financial crisis, let alone that it is doing it on its own, is laughable. Also, the assumption is that after 9/11 the US view is the correct one and it is the EU that has to catch up and understand the world as it is (that is, as the US sees it). The possibility that the US got it wrong after 9/11 and still hasn't come to its senses is unthinkable to these people. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
The possibility that the US got it wrong after 9/11 and still hasn't come to its senses is unthinkable to these people.
I'd also add that the US still hasn't gotten over the Iranian embassy hostage crisis. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Unfortunately whenever I think of that I come to the conclusion that the US government is run somewhat like the U-boat crew in the Dads army episode. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Biases for the US:
you are the media you consume.
In fact, it may be argued that the settlement of the Americas, more than anything else, paved the way for the (implicit) assumption in much of economic thought that natural resources were for all intents and purposes in infinite supply. Until the mass settlement of the Americas, the most important raw material constraint on economic activity had been agricultural land. Indeed in many ways agricultural land was the only important raw material constraint on economic activity. With one fell swoop (and judicious application of breech-loaded rifles on recalcitrant natives), this constraint was not merely lifted - it was rendered almost entirely irrelevant, and it would be about two centuries before any equally urgent raw material constraint appeared.
It would be strange indeed if being ground zero for this cosmic shift in the human condition did not have a profound effect on the American cultural myths.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
American culture often feels strange to me (even as it's the only culture I have lived) and the "brute force" nature of resource use here is a big part of that. To synthesize a new culture out of this resource abundance would take more generations than we have time for. It could serve as the basis of a serious reduction in violence and competition, but beyond some good ideas on the cultural periphery we've thus far only used it to engage in ever more elaborate games of social status seeking.
ChinaThe USA, which plays Europe at will as a function of its [bilateral] relationships with the various partners, is absent from the EU's strategic thinking.
