When Leaders Take Vacations, Beware

Proud, hardworking Americans who disdain the European tradition of taking off le tout August may have indulged in a bit of schadenfreude last week as leaders of the Group of Seven nations were all on vacation as their economies headed off the nearest cliff. That sound you heard was the stampede of Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Chancellors for the nearest airport or military base.

A selection of actual headlines and excerpts: “Crises Cloud Summer Holidays for European Leaders”; “Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero rushed back to Madrid Wednesday within hours of beginning his August vacation—after postponing it Tuesday”; “British Prime Minister David Cameron came under fire for staying on a family holiday at a villa in Tuscany. … But he found time to speak by phone on Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and on Saturday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who repeatedly had to interrupt his vacation in Cap Nègre on the French Riviera to grapple with the markets.”