As Crisis Spreads, Europe Points Finger at America

by Jenn Abelson

LONDON - Financial firms are reeling in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Iceland is on the brink of national bankruptcy. A continent that has enjoyed steady growth for years is watching it all melt away.

Financial firms are reeling in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Iceland is on the brink of national bankruptcy. A continent that has enjoyed steady growth for years is watching it all melt away. And everyone is pointing the finger of blame across the Atlantic Ocean.(Kim Haughton/WPN for The Boston Globe) And everyone is pointing the finger of blame across the Atlantic Ocean.

In the financial district of London, the pubs of Dublin, and on the campuses of Holland, people are citing reckless lending in the US mortgage market, unbridled American consumption, and a lack of government oversight for the financial meltdown that has engulfed Europe. Many dismiss the US bailout as an unwise and hypocritical move that rewards the greedy bankers who caused the crisis and breaches the ideals of the country that pioneered market-driven capitalism.

"It seems to me that the US government supports the people that least deserve it," said Sanne Castro, 28, a student at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. "But it does prove that even the most hard-core free-market capitalists would rather turn in their fundamental beliefs than their money."

Europeans are watching the value of their investments plummet, their banks collapse, their ability to borrow or get a mort gage diminish, their currency slide, and their job security become more fragile than ever. In short, they look just as shell-shocked as Americans.

The financial free fall in Europe is, in part, due to a shift in economic philosophy by the major European nations, said William Keylor, director of the International History Institute at Boston University. European nations, seeking to emulate the formula for growth and financial innovation that has propelled the American economy, gave up tight control over financial markets and privatized formerly state-run major industries, such as gas and transportation. When stock markets were advancing and economies were growing, Europeans embraced the changes, Keylor said. But the current crisis has caused many to have second thoughts. Now, some are insisting that the Europeans had it right all along, and government ownership would have limited the risks and curbed the catastrophes now enveloping the region.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/11

just like the American pigs. When you point a finger at someone, you point three back at yourself.

The Mortgage Backed Securities were like Amway and everyone couldn't wait to get in.