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September 2008
The end of American capitalism as we know it?
This looks ominous. “The World As We Know It Is Going Down.” That’s one of the headlines in Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper. It refers to the writer’s view that the U.S. financial crisis is signaling an end to U.S. capitalism as we’ve known it.
“The only thing that is certain is that the era of the unbridled free-market economy in the U.S. has passed — at least for now. The near nationalization of AIG, America’s largest insurance company, with an $85 billion cash infusion — a bill footed by taxpayers — was a staggering move.”
Another article in the same newspaper says that the rest of the world shouldn’t have to bear the burden for America’s lapses. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is asking other countries to help buy up bad U.S. debt. The U.S. government is putting up $700 billion in taxpayer money in the hopes that the measure might restore stability in the financial system. Some countries are planning to help. But the German government has answered this call quickly and clearly: no.
The article quotes various German economists who are critical of the American rescue package for a number of reasons. Some don’t believe the plan is a well-balanced one, arguing that the government is only buying bad risks and, in doing so, nationalizing the losses. Other say the U.S. government should be more focused on passing regulations so that this type of crisis never happens again.
No matter what, many Europeans feel that — since so many of America’s bad loans were sold abroad — they’ve already had to bear enough of the burden.
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Europeans promote Obama over McCain
The European media is doing all it can to try to persuade Americans to vote for their fave candidate — Barack Obama.
On Wednesday, Michael Tomasky, the editor of Guardian America, called John McCain the biggest liar in modern history. He says that the same Wall Street that McCain wants to crack down on “is not only the place he’s never wanted to regulate in his career but is also the place that he also thought just recently should be handling Americans’ pension accounts.”
Also in the Guardian, columnist Jonathan Freedland recently warned that “the world’s verdict will be harsh if America rejects the man it yearns for.” He said that an America that disdains Obama because of his global support risks turning anti-Bush feelings into something far worse.
He warns: “Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.”
Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper also cautions that McCain has moved worryingly to the right. It praises Obama for shoring up his foreign policy credentials with the choice of Joe Biden.
Foreigners hope their approval might sway American voters to cast their ballot for Obama.
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Mexico captivated, worried by Palin pick
Most Mexican commentators believe Palin’s pick has rejuvenated McCain’s campaign and was designed to woo white women voters. “Palin…has transformed the campaign and taken out the boring and tedious parts,” writes Concepcion Badillo in the Mexico City daily La Cronica. But Badillo also points to perhaps Palin’s most troubling aspect south of the border: the fact that she only got a passport last year and has little foreign policy experience.
In a column entitled, “Keep a careful eye on Palin,” Milenio columnist Fernanda Gonzalez wonders, “This is the woman who would be in charge of American foreign policy?…Wouldn’t a better option be Joe Biden, who presides over the Foreign Relations Committee in the American Senate?”
Palin is also taking flak for her frequent references to religion, which pundits say recalls George W. Bush, whose reputation is thoroughly in tatters in Mexico. Jose Francisco Gomez Hinojosa, writing for the Noreste newspaper, mocks Palin, saying “She also sees a divine mandate in the construction of a controversial pipeline in the south of Alaska that’s been severely criticized by all the environmental organizations in the U.S. For Palin then, God is on her side, meaning (she believes) the American position that considers the U.S. to be the policeman of the world, the one who decides what happens in every latitude, is sent from God.”
Palin’s personal life has also fascinated the Mexican chattering class: The Seminario newspaper says her family drama is “worthy of a Televisa telenovela.” In Reforma, Jorge Alcocer says “The American electoral show is entering its final season and it will be better than any movie or TV series.”
Mexico remains firmly in the Obama camp, with recent polls showing him with a 54 to 16 advantage over McCain.
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Here’s something you don’t see every day …
A British writer asking his countrymen: “Why can’t we be more like the Yanks?”
In today’s Telegraph newspaper, Daniel Hannan argues that British politics should be more like America’s. He said Americans are fortunate in their optimism. “Theirs is the political culture that produced West Wing, predicated on the idea that even the people you disagree with are patriots,” he says.
Hannan also admires the fact that both McCain and Obama have had to prove themselves through the primary process. “Whoever wins, the U.S. will be well and ably led,” he says. “By way of contrast, imagine how Gordon Brown would have fared at such meetings.”
All in all, Hannan says that the United States is luck in its political system. “If Britain had a more Jeffersonian democracy — by which I mean dispersed powers, localism, the direct election of public officials, recall referendums and, above all, open primaries — we should live in a happier and more prosperous state,” he claims.
Of course Hannan’s column prompted a flood of comments from readers on the newspaper’s Web site, begging to be spared from any American influence.
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Looking for a few good men …
America is no longer home to “macho men,” forcing Hollywood to look to Britain to play all the tough guys in today’s big movies, according to today’s London Telegraph newspaper.
While the U.S. film industry once was dominated by men’s men such as Steve McQueen and Robert Mitchum, today’s leading men include the “fey” Johnny Depp and the “goofy and boyish” Brendan Fraser.
As a result, directors are looking across the Atlantic and to brawny British actors including Gerard Butler, star of the historical war epic 300. At the same time, the star of the year’s highest-grossing film, The Dark Knight, is Britain’s Christian Bale as a brooding Batman who dispatches his enemies with an array of martial arts skills.
Indeed the only U.S. actors apparently still capable of playing tough guys are now on the wrong side of 50 — Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, and Samuel L. Jackson.
