In the past few months it’s been com­mon to talk about OECD coun­tries as if they’re all about to go through the Asian finan­cial cri­sis.  That they’re even about to default on their debt “Rus­sia–style” circa 1998.  David Gor­don and Sean West of Eura­sia Group dis­pel these igno­rant clouds.  I encour­age you to read the whole piece:

The emerging-market moment in the U.S. was real. A newly elected Pres­i­dent Barack Obamavowed to block bonuses at Amer­i­can Inter­na­tional Group Inc. (AIG); Con­gress over­hauled major pil­lars of the econ­omy in swift suc­ces­sion in 2009 and 2010; and then leg­is­la­tors danced close to default on U.S. debt in 2011. Noth­ing says emerg­ing mar­ket like break­ing con­tracts, reshap­ing mul­ti­ple sec­tors at once and threat­en­ing to stiff lenders. (Bloomberg)