Politicians fail in debt crisis

By downgrading the US credit rating the rating agency Standard & Poor's has made it clear that politicians have failed to fulfil their controlling function, the liberal business paper Les Echos writes: "The representative democracy we live in emerged three centuries ago from a simple idea: to avoid a debt spiral and bankruptcy, public finances must be controlled by public representatives and not left to the discretion of the king. Today this fundamental mission is no longer being accomplished in the US, which was long considered the model of such representative democracy. And in our old Europe doubt is also growing over the states' ability to honour their financial engagements, as we saw last week on the markets. The politicians multiply their reassurances, but they are losing their credibility as the debt grows. To bolster confidence, deeds are needed rather than words. Not just the health of the financial markets is at stake, but also the future of democracy."

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