MORE EUROPEAN - AMERICAN BANTERING
Economist article

"Self-assurance is often the difference. Americans do not define themselves in opposition to Europe, as Europeans sometimes do to the United States. American capitalism is not the alternative to the European social market. America, to its inhabitants at least, is just America, the city on the hill. Opinion polls show that Americans are more patriotic than most Europeans, and alongside that patriotism goes a sense of superiority. We're the best. Europeans are not so lucky, but neither are Canadians, Mexicans or anyone else. This self-confidence takes some of the edge off American hostility, just as it sharpens Europe's."