By Maui Curmudgeon

Well, it’s August and time to update our look at how one corner of Europe is viewing America, especially our presidential election. The Economist has been around since 1843, and covers the world more thoroughly than any American publication does. Here are the highlights of its recent issue:

A cover shot of Alexander Solzhenitsyn marks the great writer’s death. The Economist bemoans the fact that in spite of being freer now than it was under the Communists, Russia has no one to “speak truth to power” as he did.

The magazine loves the movie “Tropic Thunder.”

It muses on the wonder that, as far as the financial numbers go, America is not yet in recession while most of Europe almost certainly is, a strange fact since the recession is caused by American fiscal malfeasance in the banking and credit arena (read the housing mortgage fiasco). It also wonders if GM will remain viable as a company, with a $15.5 billion loss this past quarter. it also reports that Chrysler is getting out of the auto leasing business, as perhaps all three American automakers may.

Read the rest…