Travel from America to Europe, try a bit of shopping or dinner in a restaurant, and the first thing that strikes you is the chronically lackadasical attitude to service. It’s what Brits call a “job’s worth”—as in that’s more than my job’s worth so I’m not going to lift a finger to help you—attitude. It could not be more different from the business culture here.
It is commonly reported, though never actually confirmed, that George W. Bush complained to Tony Blair that the problem with the French is that they didn’t have a word for entrepreneurial. (If it’s true, don’t we miss him for it?) Myth or not, there is substance in Bush’s critique. This nation of immigrants is more go-getting and individualist than their European counterparts. Many had to have the independence of spirit to get here in the first place and that drive has dictated their attitude to business.
From a policy point of view, America is far more likely to follow Sweden, which nationalized troubled banks in the early 1990s, cleaned up their balance sheets, and then auctioned them off again.