Not madness -- no.  Folly, plain and simple.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard speculates in the Sunday edition of London's The Telegraph about the U.S. Federal Reserve riding to Europe's rescue. Europe is facing a breathtaking debt disaster, and Evans-Pritchard floats the idea that Ben Bernanke and the gang at Fed have what it takes save Europe from itself.

Curiously, it wasn't but an eye-blink ago that pundits were writing about the imperative for Germany to man-up and rescue it's financially distressed neighbors (southern European countries, mainly) from a debt implosion. Given that the Germans aren't too hep on the idea of bailing out their profligate compatriots -- and may well be incapable of doing so -- attention is turning to the U.S. as the white hat.

But, pray tell, given America's huge debt ($15 trillion and climbing), where does Evans-Prichard think that the U.S. would get the money to rescue Europe? Ah, by printing more greenbacks in an attempt to inflate away European debt? Adding debt on top of debt in the U.S. in the vain attempt to stabilize Europe?

The trouble in Europe isn't just debt. The trouble in Europe -- like the trouble in the United States -- are models of governance that lead to out-of-control spending, borrowing, and debt. Then put the E.U. in to the mix. The E.U. is highly centralized, political and bureaucratic-dominated "government" that has sought to impose one-size-fits-all policies on diverse nations, peoples, cultures, and economies. The E.U. was unworkable in concept, and it's unworkable in practice -- as it's proving abundantly. Not to mention undemocratic.

There's about to be a stupendous collapse in the attempt at European government and socialist-corporate models extant in most European countries. And a similar disaster awaits the U.S.

Statism is failing, and the elites are doing their desperate best in Europe to stave off collapse, hoping they can buy time to figure out how to preserve the existing systems and order of things. So why not try to offload the problem on the U.S.? The reasoning goes that U.S. will experience the blowback if Europe fails, so the U.S. needs to "save" Europe for its own sake.

Good luck. If pigs had wings, they'd fly, as the old saw goes. Europe's beleaguered nations need reforms toward dramatically less government and free markets. Ditto the U.S.

Statists and their fellow travelers in Europe and America are at the end of the line. But they don't want to face the harsh realities they've created and persist in worsening. Denial isn't a river in Egypt; it's a river that runs through Europe and right into the U.S.