As the sellers of snake oil and the creators of the corporate cult of personality take their “bows” for breaking the story about the European bailout that roiled the global equity markets, I had to step back and realize that the European Polity is not the U.S. While Geithner and others are held captive to the vagaries of the DOW JONES and S&P, it seems that the Europeans, and, especially the Germans, are not enthralled by markets going up and how many days of a winning streak exist. There are actually decision makers who are not captured by the price of Deutsche Bank or Siemens. In the U.S. it is only the stock market reactions that seem to dictate the decisions made in Washington. Some in Europe seem to want to effect policy for the longer term regardless the cost to certain financial entities. If forcing the issue on how large a hit private bondholders are to take means that markets dive … so be it.