Socialism going on on Europe? What socialism? Americans... You mean Welfare State (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfa

Socialism going on on Europe? What socialism? Americans... You mean Welfare State (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state), which is NOT socialism. If you exclusively mean the economy of Scandinavian countries, some people call it socialism, this can be discussed. AFAIK there's no such state-owned banks in Europe. Most state banks do a similar role than US Federal Reserve. The difference between Europe and USA comes from WW2. Europe was devastated by the war, impoverished. To avoid revolutions (like Russia), (US-imposed... we can argue about this too) governments on West Europe had to find a mixture between private property and state-owned economy (with the help of US money through the Marshall Plan). This was called Welfare State. The USA did not have war on its home land, so it needed no welfare state, and anyway, McCarthy was there to deter any left-wing thinking/movement into the country, which continues until today.