Via Balloon Juice, it appears as if "sitting around the dinner table and tightening various belts" isn't working out so well in Germany and the UK:
With its modest stimulus winding down, Germany’s growth slowed sharply late last year, and its economic output still has not recovered to its prerecession peak. Output in the United States — where the stimulus program has been bigger and longer lasting — has recovered. This country would now need to suffer through a double-dip recession for its gross domestic product to be in the same condition as Germany’s.[...]
“It’s really quite striking how well the U.S. is performing relative to the U.K., which is tightening aggressively,” says Ian Shepherdson, a Britain-based economist for the research firm High Frequency Economics, “and relative to Germany, which is tightening more modestly.” Mr. Shepherdson adds that he generally opposes stimulus programs for a normal recession but that they are crucial after a crisis.
And yet you can rest assured knowing that nothing will change here. The very serious Republicans will continue their slash and burn budget cuts -- starving the beast and risking similar economic fallout from their ridiculously ill-conceived austerity measures.