Lee Harris børster støvet av Friedrich Hayek for å forklare hvorfor en alvorlig økonomisk krise i Europa også innebærer en alvorlig politisk krise, mens det samme ikke er tilfelle i USA:

The European model works fine so long as the economy is doing just dandy. But it is not designed to cope with serious economic crises. Under the European model, an economic crisis is virtually guaranteed to become a political crisis — and the situation in Greece today demonstrates just how grave such a crisis can become.

The American model, in contrast, does not have this liability. During periods of economic recession, Americans will naturally grumble and many will blame the president or the party that happens to be in power during the downturn. They may even vote a president out of office. But that is pretty much the extent of the political damage. Not so under the European model, where austerity programs have led to mass riots, street violence, and government paralysis, as in Greece. There is a reason for this difference that has little to do with hot Latin blood: It is the unavoidable consequence of the European model.

Free markets «impose» austerity in the form of unplanned economic slowdowns and recessions. At such times, people may ask for the government to intervene in order to stimulate the economy, and they may get angry when it fails to do this, or when it does it unsuccessfully, as in the case of the Obama stimulus package. But no one seriously argues that the period of austerity (i.e., recession) was the deliberate policy of this or that administration. But the European austerity programs are the deliberate policy of the governments that have imposed them, and this is a fact that every citizen forced to tighten his belt is perfectly aware of.

This is the fatal flaw in the European model. There is a tremendous difference between austerity imposed by anonymous market forces, which cannot be politically challenged, and austerity imposed by political institutions, which can be. This fact was pointed out by Friedrich Hayek in his classic book, The Road to Serfdom. In a free market system, everyone can complain when the price of bread (or gas) mysteriously goes up, but so long as the market is determining the price that is all anyone can really do — bitch about it. This is not the case, however, when the commissar of bread announces a new price increase in the cost of a loaf. Then, disgruntled consumers can march to the commissar’s house to express their outrage and indignation.

The American: The Hayek Effect: The Political Consequences of Planned Austerity