It was fascinating to watch U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner make their appeals to the nation in television addresses over their deadlock about whether and how to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling on U.S. debts before the country runs out of money next week.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who knew America and Americans well, not least because his mother was one, famously said, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else." Maybe he will be proved wrong.
Other commentators have seen the crisis as similar to a silent movie where a pretty girl is tied to the track in front of a steaming train, but you know that the hero will reach her and cut her free in the nick of time before the train arrives.