Watching the US budget crisis unfold, I was reminded of a famous passage in The Great Gatsby. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy,” wrote F Scott Fitzgerald, “they smashed up things, and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together.”

Right now, the Republicans and Democrats in Washington are behaving like the Tom and Daisy of global politics – a warring couple, whose rows seem more likely to damage innocent bystanders than themselves. American politicians seem confident that their nation’s wealth and power allow them to get away with careless behaviour that would be swiftly punished in a weaker and poorer country.

History suggests that this complacency is justified. Congress has played Russian roulette with government shutdowns before – and the bullet chamber has always been empty. More broadly, the 50 years since the assassination of John F Kennedy have thrown up repeated political melodramas – from Watergate to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Each time, many thought that the American system was unravelling. Yet, each time, the US bounced back. For while America’s political flaws are very visible, its economic and social strengths are too easily discounted.