Here's what the German finance minister, Peer Steinbruck, had to say today:
“The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system” with the emergence of stronger, better-capitalised centres in Asia and Europe, he told the German parliament. “The world will never be the same again.”
His comments echo deep anger in Germany at the perceived recklessness of Anglo-Saxon financial engineering and a feeling that the US model of economic liberalism has failed while the more regulated, long-term oriented and industry-based German economy has proved more resilient."
We have become the basket case we have made fun of in the past (see American response to Mexican peso crisis in 1995 and Russian financial crisis in 1998). What a major embarassment this country has become.
