When the Music Stopped: Closing the Transatlantic Gap in Economic Thinking

Both Europe and the United States face enormous and unsolved long-term economic and financial problems. Both sides are convinced that the other is doomed. In the United States, for Republicans, Europe has too much debt, whereas for Democrats, it does not have enough. On the other hand, there is a broad consensus among Europeans that the decline of U.S. power and economic might is inevitable. If we agree that the current crisis is a transatlantic one and that it is best solved in a transatlantic context, there are at least two things to be done. First, remove all unnecessary hurdles to transatlantic trust. Second, complete a transatlantic free trade zone and sell the project to an increasingly skeptical public.