The German Miracle: Another Look -- Germany has cut government spending and its economy is growing smartly.

Note the reference from article in this paragraph about Keynesian economics which German leaders started using in 1963 and with that the welfare state grew and economic growth stagnated and then fell. Obama appears to be a follower of Keynesian economics as he has tanked our economy and making it worse by the day. The economy Obama inherited had a much lower unemployment rate but his policies have managed to grow the unemployment rate while shrinking the economic growth by following the tax and spend approach.

Interest in Ordoliberal ideas waned in Germany after 1963, eclipsed by interest in Keynesian economics. The welfare state grew. The economy became clogged with interest-group policies. Not coincidentally, economic growth also waned. From 1960 to 1973 growth was about half as great as it had been in the 1950s, and during the period from 1973 to 1989 it was halved again to only 2% per year.

The Germans get it now as they have turned their backs on Keynesian economics, have refused to listen to Obama's ideas how to grow the economy by spend, spend, spend, and instead have cut government spending to grow the economy. The results: US economy is failing and the German economy is thriving.

Obama ideas to grow the economy by taking over free market companies/banks/insurance companies too big to fail putting them under government control plus spend, spend, spend and now tax, tax, tax has not helped revive the economy, but made it worse. All he wants to do is mortgage more of the future of this Country by spending more now along with taxing to get votes for Democrats with his latest boondoggle to fund infrastructure. Same infrastructure that was supposed to be funded by his stimulus right after he took office.

The first Obama stimulus can be labeled "Failure" as it has not spurred the economy and the cost for each job is well over $100,000. It has has failed to produce anything near what they promised except for more bloated state governments.

Bet most Germans are happy that their Government didn't follow the Obama plan that he was pushing on them.

The German Miracle: Another Look
Germany has cut government spending and its economy is growing smartly. It's not the first time that market-friendly policies have led the nation out of crisis.

By LAWRENCE H. WHITE
Sep 8, 2010

Earlier this summer George Soros and some leading Keynesian economists criticized what they regarded as Germany's overly strict fiscal discipline. Yet Germany's real output expanded at a robust 9% annual rate in the second quarter, while the U.S. economy grew at an anemic 1.6% rate. So is Germany now a role model for how to recover?

In a June op-ed, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble justified his government's decision to cut spending, citing "aversion to deficits and inflationary fears, which have their roots in German history in the past century." He was presumably making a reference to the destructive hyperinflation of the 1920s.

Yet Mr. Schäuble might have cited another relevant episode from his nation's history. Sixty-two years ago Germany became a role model for recovery from a very different crisis. In the aftermath of World War II, Germany's cities, factories and railroads lay in ruins. Severe shortages of food, fuel, water and housing posed challenges to sheer survival.

(snip)

Germany's new Social Democratic Party wanted to continue the controls and rationing, and some American advisers agreed, particularly John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith, an official of the U.S. State Department overseeing economic policy for occupied Germany and Japan, had been the U.S. price-control czar from 1941-1943; he completely dismissed the idea of reviving the German economy through decontrol.

A 1950s Volkswagen plant. Between 1950 and 1960 the
West German economy's real output more than doubled,
 growing at a compound annual rate of nearly 8% per year.

Fortunately for ordinary Germans, Erhard—who became director of the economic administration for the U.K.-U.S. occupation Bizone in April 1948—thought otherwise.... Gen. Lucius Clay, phoned him when he heard about the decree and said: "Professor Erhard, my advisers tell me that you are making a big mistake." Erhard replied, "So my advisers also tell me."

It was not a big mistake. In the following weeks Erhard removed most of the Bizone's remaining price controls, wage controls, allocation edicts and rationing directives. The effects of decontrol were dramatic.

The shortages ended, black markets disappeared, and Germany's recovery began. Buying and selling with Deutsche marks replaced barter. Observers remarked that almost overnight the factories began to belch smoke, delivery trucks crowded the streets, and the noise of construction crews clattered throughout the cities.

The remarkable success of the reforms made them irreversible. A few months later the French zone followed suit. The Allied authorities went on to lower tax rates substantially.

Between June and December of 1948, industrial production in the three Western zones increased by an astounding 50%. In May 1949 the three zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly called West Germany, while East Germany remained under Soviet domination as the German Democratic Republic.

(snip)

If Mr. Schäuble is sincere when he says that, by comparison with U.S. policy makers, "we take the longer view and are, therefore, more preoccupied with the implications of excessive deficits and the dangers of high inflation," he can find a useful model in the policies of his predecessor 60 years ago.

Mr. White is professor of economics at George Mason University. This op-ed draws on his forthcoming book, "The Clash of Economic Ideas."

Excerpt: Read more at Wall Street Journal

By comparison to the Germans, Obama and his Administration have been a dismal failure as unemployment continues to grow and business owners refuse to add new employees not knowing what Obama plans to do next with the Bush Tax Cuts expiring. Obama wanting the Bush Tax Cuts to end on his version of wealthy will hurt the economy and slow down business owners hiring of new employees even more. If someone set out to intentionally wreck the American economy, they could not have done a better job than Obama and his economic advisors. Some of those advisors have quit because of his policies which is telling.

According to Fox News, the first book to come out about the early months of Obama by former Car Czar Steve Rattner contains some interesting details that were exposed by The Huffington Post after receiving an advance copy of the book:

-When Obama was told of the plan to pay GM CEO Rick Wagoner a $7.1 million severance package after Obama ordered that he be sacked, Rattner writes: "Suddenly I felt that I was indeed in the presence of a community organizer..."

-Rattner describes presidential political adviser David Axelrod coming to car meetings armed with poll data to support the takeover and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel identify Congressmen in whose districts large Chrysler facilities were located.

-"[Obama's economic team] veered dangerously close to having the government take control of the two most troubled banks, Bank of America and Citigroup."

-"If his team had linked arms with the outgoing administration, as President Bush's advisers had proposed, billions of dollars could well have been saved."

-Rattner says Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual dictated Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's schedule, public appearances and staff selections.

-He says Obama economic advisers Larry Summers and Austan Goolsbee and FDIC Chair Sheila Bair as enemies who slowed down decision making with infighting

-Rattner said Obama was frustrated with the auto companies from the start: "Why can't they make a Corolla?" he has Obama asking.

Bottom Line is that Obama's economic plan is a dismal failure so now this week he attacks the Republican Minority Leader John Boehner when his attacks on President Bush were turning out to be a failure.  Now that is what you call another plan for failure.