Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

Obama administration and the IMF were crucial to forcing the Europeans toward the first fix for the eurozone. But then things began to get sticky. November 2010 was a turning point. The Democrats lost control of Congress. The recovery was so lame and the fiscal impasse so threatening that the Fed launched its cautious second wave of QE, to be met with violent opposition at the G20 meeting in Seoul. But carping at the G20 was one thing. When it came to chaperoning the Europeans through the near disaster of 2011 and 2012 it was obvious that only the Obama administration could serve as a counterbalance to Germany. Obama was right. At least as far as Europe was concerned, the United States as an “inside outside” arbiter was indispensable. But with the stabilization of Europe and the beginning of the second Obama administration, the questions of the Bush era returned.1 Should Washington maintain its massive global footprint? Could it safely withdraw? Would either internal constraints or external pressures allow this to be decided as a matter of deliberate choice? Would it be an orderly retreat, leaving a legacy of stability, or would it be a disorderly rout?