Moldova isn’t well known for … actually it just isn’t well known. The small, landlocked nation sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine is Europe’s poorest and only remaining Communist country. So it was a big surprise when Moldova was ranked fifth out of 184 countries for economic stability by the 2009 World Financial Health Index, compiled by the respected British financial journal The Banker.

The Banker changed its perspective on risk after the financial meltdown in 2008 by penalizing countries that rely too heavily on leverage, or borrowing. So statistics that previously indicated strong economic performance were now indicators of risk for a country’s financial system. The study incorporated 25 indicators ranging from economic stability to overall indebtedness to government finances. Highly leveraged developed countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan ranked lower than some poorer nations, such as Moldova, Chile and Peru.

Moldova’s debt per capita is $763. America’s is $37,000, and the UK’s is $171,000. Moldovan banks have capital–to–asset ratios higher than 17 percent. Their extended loans are worth just 35 percent of gross domestic product, compared to America’s at 230 percent of gdp and Japan’s at 308 percent.

It’s not just the government either. The people of Moldova also borrow much less than their Western counterparts. “Cash-only is a matter of not just choice but tradition,” reported Jeffrey Tayler, an Atlantic contributing editor, after a trip to Moldova. “Taking on debt is still fraught with taboo.”

That is quite different to American society. As the Trumpet has written before, the lifeblood of America’s economy is credit. The U.S. government and most of the country’s businesses must borrow money to stay afloat. While leveraging creates opportunities for quick growth and quick profits, it simultaneously introduces greater risk for collapse. Moldova, on the other hand, despite its lower standard of living and underdeveloped economy, is insulated from the global downturn because of its low levels of debt. There was no boom, so there has been no bust.

“I feel sorry for the people in the West,” a Moldovan told Tayler. “Their financial system worked well for decades, and now it is collapsed. You know, I feel blessed to have been born here.”

Many people would laugh at that sentiment, considering Moldova’s per-capita gdp is just $2,500, compared to $47,000 in the U.S.

But it is also ridiculous that the world’s richest nation has taken on so much debt that it has put its whole economy at risk. America’s government is even encouraging more debt creation, recently extending further credit to itself and American businesses by borrowing and creating vast sums of money.

Moldova’s lesson for America is that access to debt can have both benefits and consequences. Moldova’s aversion to debt and risk-taking shows that even the poorest of nations or people can make a difference in protecting themselves from an amazingly complex and unstable global economy by avoiding the credit trap.