American Miracle? Dream on …

Specialists have long since formalized it: America will get out of whatever it falls into and will emerge from any crisis “stronger than ever.” The cliché seems to have faded away. What haven’t we heard this past summer about this economy hit with extravagant financial scandals, agitated in the face of a galloping globalization and destroying entire parts of its industry? What haven’t we touched on this side of the Atlantic about the somber future of a tired superpower-turned-simple consummation machine and creator of deficits? The descent into the hells of automobile makers constituted a formidable symbol of this hopelessness — GM’s failing, Chrysler being taken over by Fiat after its umpteenth quasi-disappearance …

And there you have it: The American car is looking awesome. Certainly, a lot of work has been done. Detroit’s factories have spent a lot of money on relocations. These are the huge 4x4s that are leading the market, to the contempt of all the environmental restrictions the Big Three will one day have to truly take into account. But the essential is elsewhere. An essential that the followers of this “formidable America who will never stop giving us lessons” forget too easily: This is America with its more than 300 million consumers who are both wealthy and share a common culture. It is a situation still unique in a world that generates considerable large-scale effects. The impact of a 5 percent increase in a market of over 12 million vehicles is another thing entirely than the “small” French market (2 million). The dream of a large, unified European market has fed itself on this American miracle. The story is far from being anywhere close to that.