Europe

For those who remember the end of the cold war, the world looked forward to a peace dividend, meaning less need for defense spending. During the cold war Europe was spending 3% of its GDP on defense but since the war ended that number dropped to 1.4%. The US also experienced a peace dividend but within a few years the defense budget increased and was soon higher than it was during the cold war. Europe spent the post cold war years relying on the US for defense and they now realize that they have to start taking care of the own defense. The US, with $39 trillion in debt, can no longer afford to protect Europe. The news reports this as our allies are no longer friendly. Europe is being hit with this additional defense spending, at a time when government decisions on energy policy have caused steep rises in energy cost. On top of that they allowed too many immigrants to enter too fast and the social net cannot absorb the cost.