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Thursday, June 9th, 2011

What Germany’s Economy Can Teach Obama

Author:     LESLIE H. GELB
Source:     The Daily Beast
Publication Date:     8-Jun-11
 Link: What Germany’s Economy Can Teach Obama
Stephan:   Our problem in America is willful ignorance, and a commitment, by a significant percentage of our population, to fact-free ideologies. The solution to our problems is not rocket science, but it does require honesty, life-affirming compassion, and an allegiance to facts. Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

When Germany’s Angela Merkel is in Washington on Tuesday, President Obama should ask her to explain how her country manages to succeed with jobs and exports despite high taxes and welfare, says Leslie H. Gelb.

As President Obama decorates German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the Medal of Freedom on Tuesday, he might reflect on her economy, rolling along in ways that shame America’s foundering recovery. Obama and non-hallucinatory Republicans might ask her about the solidity of German growth and jobs, despite high taxes, high social-welfare benefits, and high wages, all the things many Americans scorn as business killers. If the scorners would listen for a change, here’s what they would hear from Merkel about a successful German economy:

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