24 December 2010 - Stability and Growth Pact

Many observers trace Europe’s current instability and poor growth to the European Stability and Growth Pact of 1997, which was legally a treaty but which in practice was like a promise that you make to yourself which you use to justify breaking your diet today because you swore you’d make it up later. This means that reverse psychology tricks like concluding a Drunken Rollercoaster Pact will only backfire, and powerful medicine is needed. I propose a requirement for every young European to spend six months in the United States working as a TSA screener. Americans will feel safer, and cadets will return home vowing never to allow such a horror on their continent and feeling that even the most outrageous fiscal prudence is reasonable by comparison.