Think it's hard for the U.S. Congress to agree on a policy?

Try getting a policy passed by the European Union.

Strictly speaking, of course, the European Parliament (both chambers), not the EU, is akin to the Congress, but the 27-nation EU is proving to be almost as unwieldy as the EP.

The EU's decision to increase the guarantee on bank deposits to 50,000 euros or about $68,000 Tuesday represented the first common, or unified approach to the financial crisis, The New York Times reported Tuesday, despite incontrovertible data indicating that the credit crunch is restricting lending, both short- and long-term, and is slowing commerce.

EU stance: 'Every nation for himself'

Economist Richard Felson told BloggingStocks Tuesday the EU's lack of unified action highlights the limitations of Europe's supranational political system. "For those European nations using the euro, these nations are unified by a common central bank. But fiscal policy, in terms of a treasury department, remains at the nation-state level. That makes it much harder to coordinate a bank rescue, for example," Felson said.

That's the main reason the EU hasn't passed a rescue package similar in scope to the U.S. Congress', Felson said. "Europe's economy is just as large as the U.S.'s and it's likely to experience distressed/bad debt aftereffects almost as large as those in America. It requires a unified response, but thus far it's been 'every nation for himself.' It's very disappointing, from a governance standpoint."