Umm... don't know about the rest of the world, but I'm still looking at Germany and Asia-Pacific for growth, inovation and durability.

And I resent the implication in the title, I would piss at least over 1% of America if it was on fire... the 1% worth saving, but then again that goes for most countries in the world. ;)

While I'm not a big fan even though I'm living there, the E.U is a pretty big part of the world...

Spurge, have you ever been outside the USA?

If the United States had better economic conditions I would answer yes but we are in just as much trouble as Europe. Honestly it seems like Europe is always in some sort of trouble.

The US is far too busy trying to pull itself out of the fire right now to do anything. A completely dysfunctional government, areas of the country that still haven't been rebuilt despite disasters, the fact that they're still clinging to the hope of total energy independence based off of only oil (they might get 9 or 10m barrels a day of oil, but they use 25m), weak economy, crippling debt, languishing infrastructure...I could go on, but I think the point is made.

It's not a matter of if the US can manage to save anyone else, but a matter of if they can keep themselves from circling the drain at this point. Powers don't last forever (history has stated this very clearly) and someone new always wrestles their way to the top spot eventually. We get to see how long the States can hold onto it.

oh and because i'm American, i can't piss on my own country. i got every right to piss on America. it's called, freedom of the piss.

well i got bad news for the rest of the world. America's (republican) leaders are idiots and can't seem to get their own affairs together, which would make their solutions toxic for the rest of the world, with their agenda being politically motivated.

The us has massive coal and natural gas deposits. we we wont get energy independandt on oil, but gas and coal we can do. Especially natural gas, its one awesome thing we have going. As we switch to natural gas for more of our energy usage we will use less oil.

Two problems, Germany is trying to save the Euro, so though its doing ok, its being held back by stupid decisions in the rest of europe... and america, well they were starting to make a bit of a comeback, but let's be honest the amount of debt they have and the fiscal cliff they now have, is going to cripple them.

Looks like the recession is here to stay for quite a while, its not going to be pretty the next few years :(

Indeed, no question that once the country expands to different sorts of energy, they'll be far better off. However, there are a LOT of people (especially politicians) that still have the 'drill baby drill' mindset of years ago. Many do still believe that it's oil, and oil alone, that will do it. It's a mindset that definitely needs to be broken away from and into more modern ideas. Though coal isn't a great option either, as it's still quite polluting to the air around it, but natural gas would be a good one for the country.

It ends up all a matter of mindset. The sooner its realized they can't just dig in and hope it'll be okay, the better off things will be.

America saved some of the world already, it's called the 1950's. That won't happen again, as America are weak now. I actually blame them for this bad economy we are all having, if we all were slightly more self-reliant things wouldn't be so bad, which is why Germany hasn't been so badly effected by this, when compared to the rest of Europe, although people still lose there jobs there.

Whenever the economy recovers, something needs to change to prevent such a crash from happening again. Capitalism needs to change and be more long term and far less risky than it is. Also, our leaders need to do whats best for all of us, rather than fill their own pockets.

Who owns this debt anyway? Where does it come from?