We’re all in this together. The globalized economy, that is. We Americans worry that the eurozone crisis has returned, and will abort our fragile recovery, while Europeans worry that America’s none-too-robust economy and its weak dollar will make it difficult for EU export industries. America’s policymakers think their European counterparts are mad to believe austerity will restore economic growth, and Europe’s policymakers sniff that no country ever became prosperous by printing money, borrow-and-spend, and depreciating its currency. Europeans find the falling dollar especially galling: Other things being equal, the cheaper dollar makes it about 10 percent cheaper than it was a year ago for Europeans to buy and visit America, and more expensive for Americans to tour Italy, ease into a Mercedes, or uncork a bottle of French wine to accompany France’s now-more-costly (to us) brie.

There is more to this than a different reading of the prescriptions of the great economists. Economies reflect the history and cultures of each country, something the core countries of the eurozone are finding to their amazement and pain: surprise, Greeks are not Germans. And Europeans are not Americans. Americans by and large accept the creative destruction wreaked by entrepreneurs, while Europeans put greater emphasis on preserving the status quo. And “union,” as in European Union, is different from “united,” as in United States. The differences between conservative Texas and liberal New York are nothing compared with the differences between, say, Germany and Spain, or even between Italy and Spain.