We have drawn comparison from time to time, more often recently, of the similarity between the Euro crisis and the deadlock over financial policy across the Atlantic.
One difference is now worth emphasising. There is broard consensus in Europe of the need to fashion a plan to reduce debt and strengthen governance of the euro zone. In the UK the political parties argue about degree but not principle. Right across Europe there is a broad political vision.
In America there is not. There is a fundamental schism, and has been from the very beginning of the nation, about who governs, who pays, how much and for what. The United States sees itself as a single unit with a common agenda, moving towards a European model of universal benefits funded by fair, but higher taxation. Americans believe in the American Dream. This is all about individual responsibility, personal effort and freedom from the dead hand and huge cost of big central government. The idea is that Americans govern their lives individually and when collective effort is needed, their home state can do most of it. Above all, they should keep what they earn to to provide for what they need. In return for the state not burdening the individual, so the individual will not burden the state.
These two positions, many hold both at once, are a contradiction and incompatible. Sometimes the schism is patched over in pursuit of a common cause. Sometimes great tensions cause it to burst apart. Such a time is upon us now.
There is no clarity of where it will lead.