Dean Baker wonders why David Brooks is wrong all the time.

This time Brooks asserts that Germany is doing better than America because it has followed conservative economic/austerity policies.

Krugman points out how this is wrong. Basically Germany had more Keynesian fiscal stimulus than the U.S. since the 50 state governments' austerity policies negated much of the American federal government's Keynesian fiscal stimulus.

To be fair to Brooks, it is kind of confusing that the European Central Bank President's Trichet is talking austerity and scolding spendthrift governments, while Bernake is talking loose monetary policy, while not doing enough as the economy weakens.

Sewell Chen reports on the two central bankers.