They're just not here in America.

Thus the institutional arrangements and the behavior of countries do not jibe. I submit this is unsustainable. For ultimately, the inability or unwillingness of parts of the eu-17 to submit to agreed-upon rules will be defended by an appeal to the position that “our democracy cannot withstand the kind of austerity demanded of us.” The first shoots of this position we have already seen emerge. Yet let us be clear about what this means: Fiscally responsible countries will be asked to support fiscally profligate countries in the name of democracy.

You can do it for a while, but if you are a country like Estonia, where the gdp per capita is almost the same as Greece but where the average salary is lower than the Greek minimum wage and where the pensions and agricultural supports within an internal market are three times lower, it is a matter of time before our voters revolt. The government in my country and the opposition voted to support the European Financial Stability Facility to aid a country richer than us and profligate. Three quarters of the parliament voted in favor. But, note: 75 percent of the population was against.

What's being discussed here is that Estonia balanced its budget and while it took a nasty hit to GDP originally, the market cleared and now they are returning to economic stability, with a meaningful bounce -- roughly 6% growth, in fact. 

How?  It's all about the fact that the "Wimpy" syndrome does not work. 

But it's all we seem to know here in the United States and indeed in most of Europe as well.

There are many who believe that it's impossible to obtain leaders in any sort of democratic system that actually both give a damn and understand what's going on.  That is, their capture is "assured" and thus they will speak as the banksters will, damn the people to Hell.

Well, no.  Not necessarily.

But to the extent that they do undertake such a destructive path and kneel before the Blankfeins of the world, the responsibility is ours.  We are the ones who refuse to demand better candidates and better office-holders.  We refuse to apply a standard to our elected officials before we will vote for them.  And we refuse to make them pay the political price when they say one thing and do another.

We the people are the ones who make these choices and we have the right to enforce them.  In the major political parties it is more difficult, but particularly when it comes to third parties (such as the Libertarians) there is no excuse for any candidate to play the pandering game and get away with it.

Wake up America.