And way before all the stimulus, many of those US companies sold themselves out. Instead of spending money to update their own factories, they moved plants overseas or invested in other's plants overseas. Some of these other plants became their competitors. This happened in the Furniture buisness to a large extent.
Still, this is nothing new. It happened years ago. Many of the outboard boat motor manufactures outsource thier lower end motors to companies in Japan. You guesses it, they became their future competitors. Also, I think Germany benifited from all the other stimulas programs from other countires. They just didn't put out any money themselves. Now they are a bit smug about it. I do think overall they have managed their money etc. well.
Tom