Empire of schmucks

With the news this week that the Fed pumped money into European institutions during the darkest hours of the recent and continuing economic crisis without so much as a press release or a demand for better cheese prices, it is clear that even with all those big geopolitical shifts we have been hearing so much about, the United States remains the world’s sole Schmuck Superpower.

Oh sure, whoever it was that was stamping "Approved" on all those requests at the Fed’s "Foreign Banks Only" teller window no doubt thought it was in the self-interest of the United States to keep the global economy from imploding. But look at all the grumbling that Europeans do when asked to help preserve their own common currency and the economic health of their own neighborhood. Or, if you wish to look in the other direction, consider the not exactly Kumbaya spirit of the currency "wars" that define trans-Pacific monetary relations. In the end, you’ve got to wonder, what’re we thinking? After all, if China is the country sitting on the biggest pile of cash and the EU is China’s number one trading partner, shouldn’t they have responsibility for footing the bill for all those overly cushy European pension plans that promised retirement seemingly within weeks of graduating from college?

Beijing appears to have enough money to commit $1.5 trillion dollars to prime the pumps for seven "strategic" industries (as they announced they were considering doing this week)… while we don’t seem to have enough cash to pay for extending unemployment benefits for victims of the economic downturn. Mull that one over for a second: We have enough money to bail out big European financial institutions and their fat, happy shareholders, but not enough to help out struggling American families? We’re paying for euro problems and unwinnable wars in the Middle East and China is saving its yuan for other activities — like figuring out how to clean our clocks in the global marketplace of five minutes from now?

We are not just the uncontested Megapower of Schmuckdom, we are a deeply confused nation led by people with profoundly twisted priorities — who clearly believe they report to higher powers than mere American citizens.

Today we discovered that U.S. unemployment is at 9.8 percent, that we have broken the 1980’s record for most consecutive months of unemployment above 9 percent, and we are nonetheless forced to stomach the current charade on Capitol Hill in which the Republican party fights for tax cuts for millionaires while callously allowing Americans in need twist in the wind. All this, while it turns out that across town in the Fed’s corner of Foggy Bottom it doesn’t even take a vote to provide handouts for rich foreigners in want?

Where are the pitchforks and torches people? Where is the outrage? Don’t tell me that’s what the Tea Party was about. The Tea Party was clearly all tiny plastic tea cups and doilies when it comes to the real issues America faces. Otherwise, wouldn’t all those champions of average Americans actually be championing the interests of average Americans right now?

On a separate point, what does it say about the idea of "European Union" that as soon as troubles bubbled to the surface in a couple countries, the discussion turns to a question of whether the Germans are likely to bail on the whole idea? Or see today’s New York Times piece on the North-South divide in Europe. The reality is that the "European Union" might be a nice branding idea, but it’s purely an aspirational one and seems to actually be getting farther away from a reality every day.

It took the United States 100 years and the bloodiest war in the history of mankind to finally buy into the idea that we were all in it together. The Europeans have had plenty of wars, but since around the time of Charlemagne, none of the battles were won by those fighting for the principle of unification. (Given the goals of the unifiers, from Napoleon to Hitler, that’s not such a bad thing.) In fact, it was always those who wanted to unite Europe that were defeated. Ultimately, when they accepted the idea of knitting themselves closer together it was based primarily on the idea that finding shared economic interests might keep them from each others’ throats and it came, even in its most advanced forms, with multiple caveats, exclusions, and protestations that real independence laid beneath the fragile superstructure of links.

So we are faced with the prospect that the wheels might come off the eurozone cart sometime soon and what do you think we’ll see when that happens? Do you think we’ll see the Chinese volunteer to come in and help clean up the mess? No? Not even as a way of thanking the Europeans for siding with them recently in Seoul when they decided to make the G-20 meeting about U.S. monetary policy mistakes rather than Beijing’s manipulations? Or, alternatively, do you think we’ll see a call for the United States to help out again, to dig into our own pockets to help solve European economic and social problems, while we fail to take even the minimum required steps to take care of our own?