America Is in Better Shape Than Europe

The high-flying euro is an illusion. The United States will solve its own problems faster than the European nations can solve theirs.

It can’t be denied that there’s a certain irony about the whole thing: Despite all the aid from the European Union, Greece is facing bankruptcy. Portugal ducked under the bailout umbrella just after Ireland did likewise. In Italy and Spain, the economic outlook is anything but rosy. And what does the euro do? It takes off like a rocket and may well surpass the $1.50 mark this week.

The amateur economist might think the euro crisis can’t be all that bad. But there’s a lesson to be learned here, because while America may well have a serious debt problem, all it will take to remedy it will be a couple dozen congressmen convincing the president that it’s finally time for him to get out his red pencil. As soon as that happens — and it will certainly happen, whether it takes two weeks or two months — the U.S. dollar will pick up speed once again.

In contrast to the United States, the European Union has a constitutional problem: Serious sanctions against members who go into deep debt are nowhere to be seen on the horizon as of yet. As long as Europe’s politicians fail to solve that problem, the euro will lurch from one crisis to the next. America’s problems seem almost trivial in comparison.