With the Bush administration and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pushing to pass the $700 billion bailout through congress this week, the rest of the world sat seemingly unwilling to help in any way.

Roger Cohen, a respected US commentator on foreign affairs with the International Herald Tribune writes, “The world has changed in the past decade. There has been a steady transfer of wealth away from the United States in a shift most Americans have not yet grasped. But there has been no accompanying transfer of responsibility. New powers are free-riding as if it were still the American century.”

Why isn’t the US getting the help they think they deserve from the European Central Bank and other nations? Well, for one, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke are too macho to ask. Representative Barney Frank, Democrat from Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee was asked about the situation by Mr. Cohen and had this to say: “I think it’s a perverse pride thing. We don’t ask for help. We’re the big strong father figure. But let’s be realistic: We’re no longer the dominant superpower.”

Whatever the reason there is no real excuse for the European Central Bank to not even hint at some responsibility, or other countries for that matter. But this is truly an “American mess” as Cohen writes, “The responsibility for undoing the mess is chiefly American too.” However no one believes that any nation is going to voluntarily offer aid to the US, definitely not with this administration.

But Mr. Cohen continues to inquire in his article why the European Central Bank is not coming forward, when they did have plenty of their own subprime mortgage mess. “With this shift of wealth there needs to be a shift of responsibility”, writes Cohen. The G-7 held a conference call earlier today to discuss global financial markets and to reaffirm their commitment to protect the integrity of international finance system, according to the European Central Bank website. Their continued monitoring of the situation will undoubtedly lead to further discussion between EU finance ministers and US leaders.

ESA (European Space Agency) faces the threat of having no way to get its cargo and astronauts to the international space station (ISS) because NASA has decided to cut off the U.S. space shuttle early - in 2010 - five years before a new generation of space craft take over the transport duties.

A planned temporary arrangement for Europeans and Americans to use Russia’s Soyuz shuttles in the interim now seems in jeopardy because of tensions in the wake of Russian actions in Georgia.

NASA and ESA had collaborated on designing a station crew-return vehicle based on an earlier experimental craft, the X-38, but the project has been dropped on the U.S. side even though the European parts were being delivered.

As reported by the BBC, ESA was caught short by NASA’s action. “The decision to cancel the order was delivered by the U.S. government after the components were ready, according to Mario Caporicci, head of ESA’s future space transport infrastructure division, the BBC said on September 12, 2008.

Already, there were question marks about the continuing U.S. role in the ISS after the current shuttle program is discontinued in 2010. The U.S. “constellation” space program has slowed its development pace because of technical and funding problems, and the NASA announcement left a 5-year gap (at least) of no U.S. transportation to and from the station.

An embarrassing aspect of this decision is that the U.S. had promised transportation services to its European, Japanese, and Canadian partners, who all provided their own laboratory materials and equipment to the station.

So what can the grounded Europeans do? A proposal is currently underway to evolve their existing cargo vessel (ATV) into having the capability to transport astronauts, which is considered a necessary second step by Mr. Caporicci and ESA. “To achieve this second step, it will be necessary to analyze in detail the implications of adapting the Arianne 5 launcher and its ground segment to human spaceflight,” Caporicci said.

The longstanding alternative had involved leasing Russian space-craft to ferry freight and people, but that appears unacceptable in Washington under the current circumstances. “The Russians are not going to back out of Georgia anytime soon, certainly not prior to the U.S. presidential election,” NASA chief Michael Griffin told the BBC.

In practice, he predicted, the next U.S. administration will have no choice but to extend the life of the U.S. shuttle. So Europeans will have to wait until the November election and January inauguration before having a clue about the fate of the international program centered on the space station.