World's economic leaders play games with other people's chips: In 2011 the world woke up once again to their naivety, this time for their misplaced trust in the infallibility of the Western democratic system. This summer, the ratings firm Standard & Poor's cut the US' top-tier AAA credit rating after the world's largest economy took itself to the brink of default due not to economic weakness but to political brinkmanship between the two major parties.
To highlight the turmoil the Western world went through this year, the once unimaginable downgrade of the US that should have been the financial event of the decade now comes almost as an afterthought compared to the near collapse of the European common currency, after a series of mistakes by political leaders that started to unfold during the summer.
The severe potential consequence is not the true similarity between these two events but the fact that they both resulted not from inevitable national or financial conditions as much as from the failure of politicians to do what's right, even in the face of an economic apocalypse.
To highlight the turmoil the Western world went through this year, the once unimaginable downgrade of the US that should have been the financial event of the decade now comes almost as an afterthought compared to the near collapse of the European common currency, after a series of mistakes by political leaders that started to unfold during the summer.
The severe potential consequence is not the true similarity between these two events but the fact that they both resulted not from inevitable national or financial conditions as much as from the failure of politicians to do what's right, even in the face of an economic apocalypse.
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