The latest reminder that other major economies are recovering and even prospering while we continue to wallow in a deep recession. A flailing national economy isn’t inevitable on the current global economic scene. You can recover. You just need to have the right policies in place. Which we don’t.

Germany has an 18-year low unemployment rate, with more Germans employed now than before the global recession. We have 9.6% unemployment and one in eight Americans living on food stamps. Consumer confidence in Germany is on the rise. In America, consumer confidence and economic outlook are depressingly low.

Germany has taken the path of austerity and encouraging private sector growth. The United States government builds up record debts and deficits, spending money like it grows on trees lining Pennsylvania Avenue. We raise taxes, depress the private sector, discourage investment, and demonize profit.

Our national economic policies don’t work. It’s time Washington comes to grip with that reality.