The economy we emulate

Everything that the modern Democratic Party wants to do points to a future for the United States in which we are more like Europe. I do hope that our European future is better than the European present:

It was only a matter of time. With many of its debt-ridden euro partners in recession, Germany could only swim against the tide for so long.

Figures Thursday showed that output in Germany, Europe's largest economy, contracted by more than anticipated in the last three months of 2012. And it was the German drop that lay behind a deepening of the recession across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro.

On the bright side, the contraction was "more than anticipated" as opposed to "unexpected." That's something.

The question for Europe is this -- how long will Germany be willing to carry the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain), especially with France likely to join the basket case brigade? And what happens if the Germans say they've had enough? Historically, those sorts of disputes haven't ended particularly well.