Last Week, the Dow Jones plummeted due to investors fears about the economy. It wasn’t the US economy , but those of several European Countries–Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. The issue at hand is that these countries have too much sovereign debt and are in danger of defaulting on their loans. If they are unable to repay their obligations to bond holders, other European countries will likely step in to help. For a great summary of how this effects the global markets, watch the video to the right.

This fear pushed investors out of stocks and, ironically, into the safety of US Bonds. On ABC’s “This Week”, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said this is a “sign of basic confidence in our capacity as a country to work together to fix these problems.” The problems to which he is referring is our own growing debt. The world is looking to us for safety and security, but if we do not control our own spending, we will find our bonds worth less, jeopardizing our ability to repay.

While America has the “capacity” to fix our growing debt problem, we must not assume that the world will remain patient forever.