In Turns, both at Fault and Inconsequential

N.B.: I wrote this in January 2008. This
looks funny, in reflection.

Funny (ha-ha), don’t you think, that the U.S. is somehow the virus that gives Europe a cold when it sneezes? This implies that the US is somehow responsible for economic affairs in the U.S., despite the fact that every morning in New York, traders have to wake up to Europe’s mid-day jitters more often than not.
After all, even Christine Lagarde, who is nearly as North American as she is French, is adding the usual pedantic continental commentary as a show at home to be taken seriously and appear to have social depth while effectively demanding something from others one is largely unable to do oneself.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush should explain how the 140-billion-U.S.-dollar stimulus package will work to revive economy.

Who’s economy does she think Bush should primarily be concerned with anyway? Suddenly, suddenly the U.S. is commanded to stick to its’ role as the fuel in the locomotive pulling the global economy along, while the caboose only conditionally considers easing up on its brakes if you’ll indulge their delusions, but otherwise act in their interest.

When asked if a U.S. recession will implicate Europe, Lagarde said there are big economic differences between the United States and Europe.
She explained that unemployment rate is on the rise in the United States but is declining in Europe and U.S. economy has begun a slowdown while Europe grows at a steady 2 percent.

Which is especially funny, because they virtually never experience rates of growth as high as 2 percent, while the world worries about the U.S. having that yearly rate now, and ironically trying to call that a “recession.”

The minister also said a U.S. recession will not be a "tragedy" for France as bilateral trade between the two countries only accounts for 8 percent of France's total foreign trade volume.

Hypocrites. Which is to say that they really want the U.S. push through stimulus, give other central banks enough information to profit off of the sectors that it dwells on, but hey!, ya know what? No problem here! We’re BETTER than that! We call the inflation rates/ unemployment rates/ growth rates in France a stellar success, while those same rates in the U.S. are a sign of decay, meltdown, and an inadequate amount of nagging crypto-marxism. Right-o. Got it.
At the same time the Bank of France (whose real authority has been ceded to the ECB) chose a different tack while going into blame mode.

French regulator sees 'partial decoupling' of U.S. and EU economies
While there is increasing evidence that the eurozone economy is slowing, most of the factors that are contributing to the bleak outlook in the United States are not present on the Continent, according to the governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer.

See? Different! That’s a sign of the breadth and richness of their broadmindedness. That famous continental touch, if you will. Their failure to jump onto a decade-long global economic expansion goes unmentioned and nearly never discussed. Their lack of abject stagnation for 2 years somehow points out the failure of two decades of systematic growth in the U.S., and yet if it didn’t, the cultural buzz would try to say that American growth is somehow inimical to humanity – an eco-sin and a decadence of reactionaries that they choose not to take. Until they experience some growth themselves, and get some relief from the state of stagnation normal to their way of life. No, THEN everyone else on earth is an idiot for some other reason.

Got it. We’ll see how different the public zeitgeist looks when thing are different, and America is called another sort of demon.