The American people frequently are manipulated into viewing issues through simplistic paradigms - like austerity versus stimulus spending - as if something as complex as the economy can be reduced to one factor. Steve Rattner, on Morning Joe, shows the differences in productivity between the countries in the EU.

...if you look at the countries that are now in trouble.. these countries are not competitive with Germany anymore, and that is at the heart of their economic problems... unions are a piece of it...