>> it's not going to have a good effect on us, and i think senator dragew is signalling his anxiousness on the situation and he would like the germans to do more. the germans, however, are in the sweet spot compared to the rest of europe right now, and they're not inclined to change their own posture just to help out italy and other countries in the european periphery. >> is there a silver lining to all this? is there a chance we could get back to where we were 30 or 40 years ago? what would it take? >> i don't think so. i think it's not -- if you have that expectation, you're going to constantly be disappointed and also take policy moves that we shouldn't take. in the situation we're in, we need to be much more careful to preserve the socially stabilizing institutions that we have, social insurance programs in particular, social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment insurance. these are things which actually help preserve the fabric of the united states over the last five years in a way which that didn't happen and the fabric is much more visible in the streets. >> that's a pretty