Wish We Could Do The Same

The Lehmann Letter (SM)

Investors around the world celebrated Europe's plan to resolve its debt crisis. The details must be arranged and the plan implemented, but a good start has been made.

Meanwhile consider the irony. Here we have a continent of disparate peoples, cultures, history and nations that has fought like cats and dogs for centuries. But over the past 65 years Europe has slowly knit itself into a coherent and cohesive economic union. The job is not finished and pitfalls remain, but at the end of World War II most would have thought this kind of progress to be impossible.

Now consider us: One nation that seems to increasingly take its cue from the years preceding the Civil War. One-hundred-fifty years ago compromise was an alien concept. So it seems today, despite the obvious fact that the issues that divide us are not nearly as serious as the issue of slavery. So why can't we reach a compromise on economic matters such as federal spending and taxes? We send delegations to Northern Ireland and the Middle East in order to effect compromise, yet compromise remains elusive at home. We ask others to find the middle ground, to be reasonable, to be statesmen. Yet we cannot practice what we preach. Strange.

© 2011 Michael B. Lehmann