DAVID BROOKS: Be More Like Germany:
The American stimulus package was supposed to create a “summer of recovery,” according to Obama administration officials. Job growth was supposed to be surging at up to 500,000 a month. Instead, the U.S. economy is scuffling along.
The German economy, on the other hand, is growing at a sizzling (and obviously unsustainable) 9 percent annual rate. Unemployment in Germany has come down to pre-crisis levels.
Obamanomics has been a failure, as it was clearly destined to be from the beginning. More thoughts here. “Brooks’ column was not only spot on, but a surprising indictment of everything the Obama administration has done since Inauguration Day. . . . Imagine that: German unemployment is now down to where it was before the financial crisis began! Not only is ours not even close to that, most economists expect U.S. unemployment to rise in the coming months.”