You may recall when Obama first got into office, he jawboned the Europeans to increase their stimulus spending. Showing contempt for our president's brilliance, the Europeans refused, saying thanks much but we know what's best for our own economies.

It now appears that they were right. Marcus Walker and David Gauthier of the Wall Street Journal report:

Germany and France have escaped from recession surprisingly quickly, outpacing the U.S. in returning to growth thanks in part to government stimulus efforts and consumer spending.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, grew at an annualized pace of 1.3% in the second quarter, while France, the region's second-biggest economy, expanded at an annualized rate of 1.4%. Both countries recorded contractions for the previous four quarters, and bounced back earlier than other advanced economies including the U.S. and the U.K.

 

The news that Europe's economic engine is rebounding suggests the region is joining the recovery under way in China and increasingly elsewhere in Asia, exemplified by India's announcement Wednesday that industrial production in June rose nearly 8% from a year earlier.

That contrasts with uneven consumer spending in the U.S., where retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.1% in July, as American households are hurting from job losses, a weak housing market and tight credit.

This week, Federal Reserve officials said U.S. "economic activity is leveling out," but cautioned that it is likely to remain "weak for a time."

While previous global rebounds relied heavily on U.S. shoppers, the current recovering trends in Asia and Europe appear to hinge more on spending by governments and the region's households and businesses. That could benefit the U.S. economy in coming months by lifting American companies' exports while U.S. consumers rebuild their battered finances.

China, who provided a much smaller per capita stimulus, is already out of the recession too. The question any common sense person might ask would be; "If we hadn't busted the budget with a monstrous stim bill, would America, too, be coming out of the recession now?"

You won't see it asked by the Obama press, but it might make an interesting campaign commercial for the GOP.

Ed Lasky adds:

And without saddling themselves, their children with debt that will be crippling our nation's prospects for many years to come. Maybe consumers fear our President and the political leadership in Congress and are fearul that they will strip of us our savings and growth potential via anti-growth legislation and regulation as well as punishing new taxes.

Oddly enough, as shown in a previous story, the stimulus spending has been slowing down and, fortunately, our economy is showing some feeble signs of recovery. Maybe we just never needed that "stimulus" to the extent we were pressured by the spreading of panic to pass it.