Where are the Americans?

I went to Stockholm, Sweden to visit my daughter who's studying abroad there. In mid April it was still winter, and it snowed 6" just before we had to drag our suitcases like snowplows to the airport shuttle stop. In our 4 days/3 nights there we didn't meet any Americans.

We sat by a Yank on our flight from Copenhagen to Milan, Italy (he had business there). We've been traveling in Italy for four days so far and no Americans to be seen. I know the high season for Europe hasn't started yet, but this seems like a real shortage of American tourists. My theory: The US' world-worst twin debtloads (federal budget deficit and trade deficit) which tend to make our currency weaker, coupled with a real rate of US inflation that is running at perhaps 4-8% (regardless of the much lower reported number), and combined with our general fear of a weakening economy (even if we aren't right about that) conspire to keep us at home.

The people in Sweden, Denmark, Italy and France are so wonderful that we won't greatly miss making new US friends, but this is a first--it's like strangers in a strange land.

I cannot help believing that unless we get our American economic house in order, and soon, then we will create an economic black hole from which it will become too expensive to escape (i.e., our devalued currency will make everything overseas too expensive to buy, including trips overseas and everything imported that we might want to buy. That is one prediction on which I sincerely hope I am wrong, but since when has massive debt load led to anything good in the long term?