The healthier Continental economies are getting sick of footing the bills for European deadbeats. Germany's reluctance to commit more paid-in capital to Europe's emergency bailout fund shows a welcome realization that throwing good money after bad is folly.
The IMF is not showing any comparable maturity. That venerable institution is willing to activate a massive credit line, going where Germany fears to tread. Transnational institutions like the IMF and EU were born in the panic of the Cold War when the West needed to present a united front to the world. They just can't stand to see each other go down.
The "tiny" European rescue I allude to in my headline hasn't happened just yet. Portugal's budget misadventures will tell us all very soon whether that rescue is needed.
The IMF is not showing any comparable maturity. That venerable institution is willing to activate a massive credit line, going where Germany fears to tread. Transnational institutions like the IMF and EU were born in the panic of the Cold War when the West needed to present a united front to the world. They just can't stand to see each other go down.
The "tiny" European rescue I allude to in my headline hasn't happened just yet. Portugal's budget misadventures will tell us all very soon whether that rescue is needed.
