Pulling out of recession

You'll have seen that Germany and France have pulled out of recession. Last quarter they had a 0.3% growth compared to everyone else's continued decline.

The obvious question is what are they doing right? It seems to me there are some basics;

• They are in less personal debt.
• Their banks take less risks.
• They have tighter financial regulation.
• They make things.

Meanwhile over here the governor of the Bank of England has warned that recovery will be a slow and painful road. Tell us about it.

Whilst France and Germany have not been immune to the neo-liberal fetish that swept the globe in the last twenty years they have dug it into the economy far less deeply and have been able to weather the world financial crisis a little more robustly than other nations.

Good for them. Let's learn that economic lesson and then start on the more advanced sustainable economic models.