January 1, 2009

Time to pay the bills

“Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy,” once said Margaret Thatcher. Maybe that’s what the difference between Europe and America is all about. But what the “American Philosophy”—or better still, if you prefer, the American Spirit—is all about? As a European by birth and an “American by philosophy,” I’d have some ideas about how to answer, but this piece by David Ignatius, focused on the ongoing financial crisis and government bailout, can be helpful to get a down-to-earth picture of the whole thing in a socio-economic perspective, which at the moment is almost certainly the most topical one.