QOTD: Understatement of the Year

As the United States’ central bank now exits the extraordinary measures it undertook to defeat the financial crisis’s aftereffects – and Europe first wades into the waters of stimulus – it’s worth thinking about the consequences of trying versus not trying to save one’s economy.

We did the former, imperfectly but doggedly. Europe went the other way – raising rates into the teeth of the crisis while attempting all manner of ridiculous fiscal austerity experiments. The results of this divergence in response could not be more stark. Our capital markets are on fire, corporate profits have never been higher, real estate is stable-to-strong and unemployment is falling to levels not seen in almost a decade.

Jon Hilsenrath compares the approaches at Wall Street Journal at the link above.