Genever for breakfast: "Going Dutch."

Encouragement for a Tuesday morning comes from the Sunday NYT magazine. Perhaps if we're fortunate, we can catch HB on break from his daily Obama bashing and elicit a comment or two.

Going Dutch, by Russell Shorto (New York Times Magazine, April 29, 2009)

But to ponder relative tax rates is only to trace the surface of a deeper story. In fact, as my time abroad has coincided with the crumpling of basic elements of the American economic and social systems, and as politicians, commentators and ordinary Americans have cast about for remedies or potential new models, I have found myself not only giving the Dutch system a personal test drive but also wondering whether some form of it could be adopted by my country.

One subtext of the World Economic Forum at Davos in January was the question of whether, amid the derailing of American-style capitalism as we have known it, the European approach, which marries capitalism and social welfare, and which in times of economic crisis seems to offer more stability both to individuals and to society, could suit the United States.