That brings up another similarity between Greece and America: that the necessary may be impossible, that baby boomer politicians in the age of Twitter may not be up to addressing problems this big. The hole is too deep and power too fragmented. The only way out is by collective action \u2014 where ruling and opposition parties unite, share the pain and take the necessary steps. But that is not happening here or in Washington. There are Eric Cantors everywhere \u2014 reckless baby boomer politicians for whom no crisis is too serious to set aside political ambition and ideology.<\/p>\n
But there is an adult lurking. China has been buying Spanish, Portuguese and Greek bonds to help stabilize these Chinese export markets. \u201cThese are delicate times, and we take a positive role,\u201d Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People\u2019s Bank of China, told the British newspaper The Guardian in January.<\/p>\n
This is a role America used to play, but can no longer afford. Anyone who thinks that this economic crisis, if prolonged, won\u2019t also hasten a global power shift has never heard of the Golden Rule: He who has the gold, sets the rules. \u201cWe are so used to the Americans providing the solutions for Europe and leading,\u201d said Vassilis T. Karatzas, a Greek money manager. \u201cBut what happens when we are both in the same boat?\u201d<\/p>\n
What happens is that both the American and European dreams hang in the balance. Either we both put our nations on more sustainable growth paths \u2014 which requires cutting, taxing and investing for the future \u2014 or we\u2019re looking at a world in which democracies are going to turn on themselves and fight over shrinking pies, with China having a growing say over how big the slices will be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thomas Friedman, from Greece: That brings up another similarity between Greece and America: that the necessary may be impossible, that baby boomer politicians in the age of Twitter may not be up to addressing problems this big. The hole is too deep and power too fragmented. The only way out is by collective action \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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