[jernfrost]

"All told, I'm getting really sick of the Euro-lectures-Americans schtick." Oh, please. If it is something Americans are bad at, it is keeping their opinions to themselves and they are loud about it too. If you lecture the rest of the world about how to run their affairs, you can't complain when somebody in the rest of the world criticize you.

I've been subscribing to American news magazines for decades and if there ever was a mention of any problem in Europe, you'd be sure to hear the normal American lecture to the Europeans about how they need to rid themselves of their addiction to their welfare states. Get more flexible labour markets (read, get rid of worker protection laws). Basically the lecture always sums up to be: stop being yourself and be more like us.

If America insists on lecturing us about economics, maybe it should tolerate a European lecture on social policies.