Europe panicked in 2009 over large deficits (due to automatic stabilizers) and pulled on the brake in 2010 (with the sovereign debt crisis). Then in 2011 you get the divergence from the US recovery, and Trichet raised rates for good measure causing a double-dip recession. Yay for Europe!

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman