Saturday, December 03, 2011

The Son Got in Their Eyes

Europe celebrated the departure of George W. Bush and the arrival of President Obama. But now they will find they are the latest scapegoat for the president's economic failures:

“[A] U.S. recession caused by the fiscal crisis in Europe would be very costly and could throw millions of Americans out of work.” So says the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank that numbers Pulitzer Prize winning, generally liberal economists Joe Stiglitz and Robert Solow among its advisory board members. This is consistent with the story being put out by the White House. After three years in office, President Obama can’t credibly blame the nation’s economic difficulties on his predecessor—he owns the economy, as we say in Washington—and without George W. Bush to kick around anymore has selected a new villain: Europe. Weakness in our economy is due to squabbling European politicians, any strength to the wisdom of Obama’s policies. Or so administration spokesmen contend.

Finding excuses for failure is more important than finding solutions, for the current administration. It is Europe's turn to provide an excuse.

First they came for "W." But EU was not "W," so you did nothing.