THIS IS THE SEASON of high-level international meetings and, therefore, the season of many discontents. Europe’s concerns about the fall of the dollar and America’s fiscal profligacy were aired at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, as were America’s concerns about the inability of Europe’s governments to stimulate domestic demand. The Europeans are watching their export industries suffer as the euro soars, and the value of the dollars their companies’ U.S. subsidiaries earn drop like a stone, as the Euro appreciates to some 50 percent above its previous low.

The Americans, in turn, made it clear that we are tired of being the world’s economic locomotive, forced to tug along European economies that are wallowing in recession. That’s what these sessions are for–what diplomats like to call “a frank exchange of views” on the topics of the day.