For the love of God.
Believe me, the very last thing Europe needs is advice or even commentary from America, or Americans.
Based on the assumption that sub-prime lending precipitated the crisis, the Clinton Administration is where it all began - Europe is just collateral damage caused by greedy and incompetent American banks, aided by greedy and complicit American politicians.
Not only are the USA the cause of the current global recession, but as the self-appointed (leveraged by military force) caretaker of the world, you have been the most irresponsible and interfering nation in modern history.
As a Nation built on "freedom, justice and the American way", the US has long been criticised for supporting dictatorships with economic assistance and military hardware. Particular dictatorships have included Musharraf of Pakistan, the Shah of Iran, Museveni of Uganda, the Saudi Royal family, warlords in Somalia, the Al Khalifa family of Bahrain and Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
In perhaps the ultimate irony, during the anti-Soviet jihad Bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA. Basically Al-Qaeda was created with the blessing of, and the military and financial support of, the USA.
Then of course there is a foreign policy that since the 1950's has systematically been involved in forcing regime change, installing American puppets, and effectively subjugating the world to American rule...
Syria 1949, Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Tibet 1955-70s, Indonesia 1958, Cuba 1959, Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960-65, Iraq 1960-63, Dominican Republic 1961, South Vietnam 1963, Brazil 1964, Ghana 1966, Chile 1970-73, Argentina 1976, Afghanistan 1979-1989, Turkey 1980, Poland 1980-81, Nicaragua 1981-1990 through the now infamous arming of the Contras, Cambodia 1980-95, Angola 1980s, Philippines 1986, Iraq 1992-1996, Afghanistan 2001, Iraq 2002-3, Venezuela 2002, Palestinian Authority, 2006-present, Somalia 2006-2007, Iran 2005-present, Libya 2011, Syria 2012.
And of course today your political leaders are selected not on the basis of intelligence, integrity, or even a propensity to stand for positive National and International change, but rather they are selected on how well they can perform in front of a camera, the level of public support they have the finances to 'buy', and the level of poltical support they can leverage through a combination of coercion and corruption.
Yeah, them Germans sure are crazy!! <-- Sarcasm