Commentary

BRUSSELS – The emerging consensus in Europe nowadays is that only “debt mutualization” in the form of Eurobonds can resolve the euro crisis, with advocates frequently citing the early United States, when Alexander Hamilton, President George Washington’s treasury secretary, successfully pressed the new federal government to assume the Revolutionary War debts of America’s states. But a closer look reveals that this early US experience provides neither a useful analogy nor an encouraging precedent for Eurobonds.

NEW YORK – Imagine North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a tuxedo, waiting nervously at the altar (or shrine) of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il. He beholds his future wife’s face, anticipating his chance to kiss the bride. Of course, such an event can only be imagined in today’s North Korea.