This entire crisis has illustrated just how compromised the European nations are by American finance capital. It's hit a point where their own national bourgeoisie have less sway over their nation's politics than the American bourgeoisie do.

This is the sort of behaviour you'd normally expect from a semi-colony, like Argentina when it was held in thrall by the British empire. That America can do this to the Europeans, despite them pooling their power within the EU, speaks volumes about how far these countries have fallen.

The thing that strikes me the most about all this though is how anyone really feels surprised about it; there was never a world where the US would have tolerated a European power with the potential for independent action. Building up such a power economically would mean building up their own imperialist competition.

Therefore, it was a foregone conclusion that Europe's economic development would only be tolerated so long as it served US imperialist interests; so long as they offered a lucrative market for American goods and a bloc of allies to sign off diplomatic alibis to cover up the horror of their adventures abroad while pressuring and concern trolling their enemies they can be tolerated. In the final analysis, Europe's wealth is tolerable only so long as it can be controlled by Washington.