Europe’s financial crisis may end the political careers of more than just European leaders. It could play a major role in booting President Barack Obama from office too, experts say.
"An acute U.S. economic shock that comes out of Europe has a clear negative implication for the re-election of the president," Sean West, director of U.S. political risk coverage at Eurasia Group, tells CNNMoney.com.
A European meltdown could hurt the U.S. economy in many ways. For example, it would almost certainly depress Europe’s demand for U.S. exports. It also could damage U.S. banks with exposure to European banks that may be frozen out of capital markets.
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"It would be a very substantial shock if Europe fell into disarray," Campbell Harvey, an international business professor at Duke University, tells CNNMoney.com
And Obama will almost certainly take the blame for any slowdown in the U.S. economy, even if it is caused by external forces.
"The president is the single person who gets credit or blame based on economic performance," West says "It doesn't matter where it's coming from."
Others too are concerned about the U.S. economy’s vulnerability to Europe.
“If Greece leads to the contagion of Spain and Italy, the euro could implode,” Uri Dadush, former World Bank economic policy chief, tells MSNBC. “This is big business for the United States. We're talking trillions of dollars in direct and indirect exposure to the European banking sector."
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