Analysts at JP Morgan said there was “a growing sense that the crisis is reaching a climax”, arguing that the “endgame on EMU [European Monetary Union] is approaching fast.”
Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, added that along with Greece, “something big needs to happen for European bank capital, the clarity and determination of ECB policy making and, most importantly, where Germany wants to lead EMU.”
The old system is visibly sinking and its captains are visibly confused, milling around on deck, now running here, now running there. The problem they face is that there is now no policy action consistent with the survival of their power. They have to let go to live but are too greedy to relinquish the perquisites of sham power without more urgency.
The giant state hasn’t got the money to pay for its continuation, but it cannot bring itself to abandon is most cherished dreams of “progress.” The socialist catalog of “gains” has ultimately proved to be an itemized list of debts. “Pay before.” Merkel herself has said that when the end comes, it will be swift: “a domino effect” was how she put it. The question is not now “if,” but “when” the dominoes fall.
Perhaps the only advantage America has over Europe is not that Obama is a better leader than Merkel, but that U.S. political tradition has given rise to a popular movement determined to amend things, without resort to fascism or dictatorships. The Tea Party may not provide an end point, but it certainly serves as a starting line.
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