Banana Republic IV: American Credit

With the spectacle of dysfunction in Washington, the fiscal duel between Republicans and Democrats and the partial paralysis of government, American credit is at risk. I am not just speaking of economic trustworthiness, especially if we have a huge battle within two weeks over increasing the debt ceiling, but the determination and the ability of the U.S. to act as a global player. The doubts are valid, as much for allies as for adversaries of the only superpower on the planet. To remind of the obvious, Vladimir Putin is reveling in the American havoc; our Dilma also. Who would have thought?

On this subject, we have drawn on the fly from Gerald Seib, of the Wall Street Journal, on the issue of the dangers. Unhappily, the text is just for subscribers.

There are uncomfortable questions raised: When is the dysfunction in Washington, which has become chronic, going to erode the confidence of countries allied to the U.S.? And when will adversaries start to take (even more) advantage of this paralysis?

In the end, how can a superpower be trusted when it has difficulties in governing, and is showing itself to be incapable of agreement inside the House over the payment of its accounts? The White House (where the Republicans have the majority) and Congress live in a permanent duel. There exist worrisome geopolitical ingredients: There was a bipartisan rebellion in Congress over President Obama’s plan to roll out a military operation in Syria in September.

A classically conservative newspaper, The Times of London, published an editorial deploring the “irresponsibility” in Washington. How can Americans, in this scenario, exercise global leadership?

Just take the case of the Iranian nuclear crisis. Israel wonders, in the wake of Congress’s reluctance to support the White House on the Syria crisis, if the U.S. will really have the stomach for a military operation in Iran. Here, it is true, Congress has more appetite for military force than in the case of Syria. In the same terms, Iran wonders if the White House could convince Congress to lesson sanctions as part of the nuclear negotiations.

In these imponderable scenarios, imagine what is going through the head of the youthful North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un over the credibility of American threats with respect to these weapons of mass destruction. At the very least, the dysfunction in Washington increases the chance of an error in calculation.

The fact is, as the guru Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations points out, the domestic deficiencies and dysfunctions of America directly threaten the “American ability to project power and exercise influence abroad.”* Bad for the U.S., very bad for the rest of the world.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.