UK: America's recovery

PJ:  Other countries affected by the economic collapse inspired by America's banking excesses are faltering, some have even fallen into double-dip recessions.   Aggressive austerity measures by many of these countries may be to blame while the more balanced approach of both stimulus and debt reduction may have saved the world's largest economy from the same fate. 

The Economist

Bad, repeat good

The recovery is weak, but it may be just enough for the president

Bright spots stand out amid the gloom. There are nearly 900,000 more jobs in professional services than when Mr Obama arrived, and over 1m more jobs in health care. Voters in Ohio and Michigan may have noticed that there are 43,000 more Americans making cars than in early 2009. Democrats eagerly claimed credit for this performance at their own political convention, praising the president’s handling of the bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors.
Michigan, long a byword for economic distress, is one of 17 states to have seen net job growth since Mr Obama’s swearing-in. Oil-rich states like Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are among the others, alongside north-eastern states buoyed up by a resilient “knowledge economy”. Housing-bubble states like California and Florida have done worst during Mr Obama’s tenure, but even there a reversal of fortune may be under way. California (never likely to leave the Democratic column) gained 365,000 new jobs in the year to July, the best performance of any state.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21562971