Only because the US stock market is weak waiting for the downgrades and contagion in Europe and Japan to gain enough momentum to send the stampede of capital into the USA. Be patient grasshopper, Oct 1 is laying the ground work...remember Oct 1 is the BIG BANG for the kickoff, not the finale.

Yellen Is Trapped in the Worst Nightmare Ever

Yellen has inherited a complete nightmare. Thursday’s decision to delay yet again the long-awaited liftoff from zero interest rates is illustrating that the world economy is totally screwed. There is a lot of speculation about why the Fed seems so reluctant to “normalize monetary policy”. There are of course the typical domestic issues that there is low inflation, weak wage gains in the face of strong job growth, a hike will increase the Federal deficit and then there is the argument that corporations that now have $12.5 trillion in debt. All that is nice, but with corporate debt, our clients are locking in long-term at these levels, not funding anything short-term. Those clients who have listened are preparing for what is to come unlike government which has been forced to shorten the average duration of their debts blind to what happens when rates rise, which will be set in motion by the markets – not Yellen.

Fed is really caught between a rock and a very dark place. Yes, they have the IMF and the world pleading with them not to raise rates for it will hurt other debtors who borrowed excessively using dollars to save money. The Fed is also caught between domestic policy objectives that dictate they MUST raise rates of they will bankrupt countless pension funds and international where emerging markets will go into default because commodities have collapsed and they have no way of paying off this debt that has risen to about 50% of the US national debt.
By avoiding the normalization of interest rates (hikes), the Fed has encouraged government to spend far more than they realize because money is cheap. This will eventually light the fire under the economy helping to fuel the Sovereign Debt Crisis. There appears to be no hope for the Fed and they will be forced to raise rates only when they see asset inflation in equities. Then they will have no choice. This is the worst possible mess and the longer they have waited to normalize interest rates, the worst the total crisis is becoming for they will have zero control over the economy and once that is seen, holy Hell will break lose.

To address your assumption of German = Order. Before the first world war (and still being a very young state) 'Made in Germany' was associated with mass produced crap- not necessarily orderliness and organisation.

I agree about the white guilt though. I believe it was 2% of the American population that even owned slaves, many other whites were conscripted by state law to hunt slaves- I imagine they were not fond of the immoral institution

Therefore higher European real wages are not the caused of Industrialization since they are its consequences.