Given how screwed up our economy is, combined with rampant political corruption via political contributions and so on, I wonder if we can get a do-over?

Germany’s success in 2010 has surprised most United States analysts, who tend to start every sentence about Europe with “sclerotic”. However, it is by no means the only country that is recovering from the great recession in a remarkably healthy fashion. China, Chile and Singapore are also stand-outs in this respect, while the United States, Ireland and southern Europe have done poorly. This year’s economic events can teach us again about which models of capitalism can be successful.
[…]
The German economic model works very well for a country with perpetually high labor costs. Education and training are of great importance, as are engineering skills – engineers have a much higher social position in German societies than in Anglo-American ones – while housing finance is given a low priority, since it is correctly regarded as unproductive.

Finance plays little role in the system – it was notable during the 2008 debacle to what extent the German banks were helpless victims of Anglo-American shenanigans, with little creative role of their own. The typical successful German company is both smaller and longer-established than its US counterpart, with powerful shareholders who prevent management from engaging in self-dealing and mindless empire-building.

Read the rest of the article for comparisons of other countries and ours.