NEW YORK A recent decision by a United States appeals court threatens to upend global sovereign debt markets.

Across the Atlantic, a standoff between the Democrats, the Tea Party, and old school Republicans has produced extraordinary uncertainty about how the United States will close its 8 of GDP government deficit over the long term.

As the boom turned to bust, the losses threatened to overwhelm the capacity of the Spanish state, and the problem became European, because it threatened the very survival of the euro.

In addition to the prospect of enormous human suffering, severe economic, political, and social pressures now threaten to overwhelm and destabilize developing countries, triggering conflict on an unprecedented scale.

In Spain, for example, local savings banks (cajas) financed an outsize real estate boom. As the boom turned to bust, the losses threatened to overwhelm the capacity of the Spanish state, and the problem became European, because it threatened the very survival of the euro.