I just hear it everywhere. I'm sure the whole world has too much at stake if US Dollar loses its value. The economy might stagflate for a while, but I believe it will eventually recover. After all, USA is the largest economy in the world.
Worked for AIG, it's just that the acquirer (the United States government) got a majority ownership stake. I don't see a reason that the same couldn't hold true on the nation-state level.
I think an economy is a region with a 'scope' that depends on the discussion at hand. You could speak about the ecnomy of Colombia in isolation, or you could look at the economy of Latin America as a whole. When comparing you'd compare Latin America as a whole with for instance North America, Europe or Asia.
It is common to compare the US economy vs the EU economy or all of Asia, not to compare the economy of Germany with Texas.
Usually regions that can be lumped together share a border.
To make the comparision more fair I think if you wish to compare 'apples with apples' as much as possible probably the inclusion of the NAFTA region would be more appropriate when comparing with the EU.
Technically US states are sovereign too :) ...and really, if you looked at the US states as separate economies you'd see many glaring dichotomies that would make you wonder how it can be considered a single economic entity.
No, Europe's not a country, but it behaves like one for trade and currency purposes and has no internal tariffs. Nor can Germany (for example) impose a tariff separately from the EU. So in this context, the EU might as well be a country.
Technically the USA isn't a country but an agglomeration (federation) of states.
Originally the EU was fully called the European Economic Community, the goal was to form a single economy. Whether or not it is a single country is not an issue here, the OP spoke about 'economy', not about 'country'.
Does it absolutely have to be a country to be relevant? The EU share the same currency. I don't know for sure, but I can't quite think of a reason why economies absolutely have to be countries.
Maybe I'm just a hopeless optimist, but I have to believe in bouncing back. Sure, times are rough right now but people are more resilient than they are getting credit for right now.
Well, and bear with me here, but have you considered the idea that "bouncing back" isn't the optimistic solution? Say what you will about politics the reality is both President Obama and former President Bush signed us up for a hail mary play largely based on the idea that people should never have to act responsibly. That they can sign a deal that's obviously too good to be true and borrow 10 times their projected earnings because the Government WILL ALWAYS be able to bail them out.
That's both sides of the political spectrum endorsing irresponsibility
But you can't live like that. Government != God meaning that misconception can't last forever. Following that logic it means our society learns this lesson now or by some miracle gets by only to have the next generations face a collapse and learn it. Maybe it's time to feel some pain now so our Children and Grandchildren get the message that the Government can't always bail you out.
