Two weeks ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sounding positively Anglo-Saxon. That's the term the French like to use for the cut-throat capitalism they perceive to be the style in the U.S.and the U.K. Mr. Sarkozy was declaring that Europe would never have to come up with the kind of rescue plan that was being pushed through the U.S. Congress.

His stance made it seem that Europeans had become the true free marketers and that America was hypocritically embracing the neo-socialist path thay it so often derided in the way Europeans do business.

That was then. Today, Europe faces the same financial hurricane and Mr. Sarkozy is pleading for a unified approach. "What is of the esssence is that Europe should exist and respond with one voice," said the French president who is also currently head of the European Union.

But so far it's been every man (and woman) for himself. Each country has acted in what it sees to be its best interest. The UK's decision to pump up to 250 million pounds into its bank is just the latest example of unilateral action. On September 30, Ireland announced it would guarantee all deposits and debts of its six biggest financial institutions. Earlier, Fortis and Dexia, two Belgian banks were rescued through a joint effort of governments and private investors: 16 billion euros for Fortis and 9 billion euros for Dexia. Iceland nationalized that country's second largest bank, Landsbanki.

Other institutions getting a government hand have included Britain's  Bradford & Bingley and Germany's Hypo Real Estate Group.

So far there's been very little coordination between members of the European Union. That's not surprising. Economic policy has always been one of the most difficult topics to get agreement on. The European Central Bank has maintained high interest rates even when European economies were sluggish, arguing that it had to fight inflation.

The first unified effort came overnight when the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the central banks of Canada, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates all cut their main lending rates by 0.5 percent. Japan already at a low rate of 0.5 percent didn't change. China's People's Bank dropped its rate by 0.27 percent.

Germany has proposed a common bailout fund along the lines of the $850 billion package passed last week by the U.S. Congress. Then last Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to guarantee all retail deposits, citing the lost of trust.

The best the EU has done so far is agree to double the minimum level of guarantee for bank deposits to $76,500, less than half of what some states wanted.

The energetic Mr. Sarkozy is still battling to bring the 27 EU members into a united front, but it will be an uphill battle. Turns out the Europeans are a lot less Anglo-Saxon than he would like them to be.