After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfraude and fear of what a collapse might mean for them.
For everybody from presidents on down to street vendors, seeing U.S. politicians argue over where to make painful budget cuts has also been a reminder that those days are over in Latin America. For now, at least, as most of the region enjoys an era of economic prosperity and comparatively tiny deficits.
"When did the American dream become a nightmare?" gloated Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, whose own country defaulted on about $100 billion in debt a decade ago....
I suppose Barack Obama has proved once and for all there is no such thing as American exceptionalism. And the fact that the Democrats still insist on minimal spending cuts and maximum tax hikes shows they won't be happen until we've spiraled down to third-world nation status, or perhaps Palestinian-style tribalism.
No surprise, really. Especially as some of America's biggest producers of wealth have, wittingly or not, gone Galt...
