America and the IMF: Dereliction of duty | The Economist

America and the IMF: Dereliction of duty | The Economist



This story is an example of what Americans have come to detest. It doesn't matter that it probably is the best course for the US, realistically, but that is not the point.

The point is that when the Americans lead, they get hammered for doing whatever they do. And now, when their representatives fail to go along with the program and avoid putting the US in the lead, they get hammered. It is the "damned if  you do and damned if you don't" paradigm that has just got most Americans throwing their hands up in disgust and saying "to hell with the rest of you. We have carried much of the world (at least the part that was known as the Free World) for 70 years and all we seemed to have gotten is kicks in the shins and spat on. Well, try it without us for a while."

There are those of us Americans who realize that attitude really is not the making of good policy, but the sentiment is understandable.

However, it is our perpetual "guns and butter" approach to domestic and international relations and policies has pretty much spent ourselves into a deep pit financially, while those who have benefited from the Pax Americana Era, pretty much skated by without having to add too much to the kitty.

Add to the mix that we have a president who seems to be ignorant of what a foreign policy is, as well as living in some ivory tower world of academe that cannot seem to connect with the real world and that there a) are evil and bad people out there and b) they don't really respond well to Occidental reasoning and rhetoric that is the basic foundation of what passes for liberal/progressive thought these days.

So, what you see is various and sundry wannabees scrambling around to see if in all the smoke and chaos of what passes for world affairs these days if they can expand their sphere of dominance whether it is by hook or crook.

All I can say is that all you out there outside the US of A are in for a heck of ride for at least the next three years because not much is going to change inside those borders.