How much is $17 trillion? Visualized for reference.

[parsonsj]

Are you referring to the slow growth and possible looming recession in central Europe? Or the high unemployment and sovereign debt crisis in southern Europe?

(probably not the solid growth exhibited by northern European social democracies with their cradle-to-grave government programs )

To be fair: Portugal, Ireland, and Spain do have similar problems to the U.S., in that much of their current issues can be traced to a de-leveraging private sector after their housing bubble burst.

But we're talking about government debt, and there is a huge difference between the U.S and Europe: currency. The U.S. has its own currency and can borrow at historically low rates. European governments cannot (due to their shared currency), and borrowing costs are sky-high for them since there is no European bond that would correspond to U.S Treasury bonds.

Anyway, here's the point of my ramble: the UK and much of southern Europe have been on government austerity experiments for the past 2.5 years. And the results have been very disappointing: cutting government spending has reduced growth, reducing tax receipts, resulting in more debt. It's proved to be self-defeating. Recent elections there seem to be pointing to more "growth" policies with more government spending. In fact, many economists and politicians there have started to point to the US as a model. Even though our economy is way below optimum and our unemployment rate is way too high, our growth has been better, in part because we did do some (not that much, but some) stimulus, rather than austerity.

Whew. I need a nap.