One of the best reasons for supporting ever closer political and economic union in Europe is precisely to stand up to the sanctimonious bully that is Uncle Sam.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since I first commented.

Jeremy Bosk provided a good explanation of why money injected by quantitative easing has largely got stuck in the banking system as opposed to generating greater use of credit, without which it is fairly ineffective in terms of economic stimulus. Perhaps Anatole Kaletsky's espousal of central banks giving money directly to the personal sector is correct in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. It certainly seems more promising than the other suggestion that trades unions should have more power to exact wage increases - for anyone who remembers the 1970s, this is clearly a blind alley.

The latest suggestion is an intermediate US downgrade to ABB-American Big Business, or Bad Business. I was quoted the example of Kraft takeover of Cadbury's, where "my word is my bond" was relegated to the historic text books.

Just seen an article, relevant to QEP, that has got me excited in to-day's Guardian.
George Osborne faces calls from leading economists for U-turn on austerity
-Almost half of experts who backed chancellor in opposition now say Treasury should borrow to spend on infrastructure projects.
by Larry Elliott economics editor.
http:/www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/15/george-osborne-economics-austerity

Just coming back to the anti US factor.
It is rumoured that some Euroskeptics are thinking of becoming USskeptics, over US bank bashing activities.
Some reckon they are a bigger threat to our Financial Services Sector than Europe.