Europe on the brink? (And Russia close behind?)

"In September, when the financial crisis in the U.S. really started heating up, we were treated to good deal of unattractive crowing from our European and Russian friends. Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, announced that the time of “laissez-faire” capitalism, “not . . . constrained by any rules,” was over. Why, I wondered, had he not noticed that capitalism unconstrained by any rules had never been the order of the day and that for the last 150 years or so, capitalism, especially in Europe, had been hemmed in by thousands–actually, tens of thousands–of pages of rules and regulations? Dmitry Medvedev, the puppet president of Russia, told us that the age of U.S. economic dominance was at an end and that the world required a “more just” economic system. But that was before the price of oil had plunged from $145 to $65 a barrel over the course of a few weeks and the tsunami of credit woes that originated in the U.S. had made its way East to Europe and Asia."
Roger's Rules