Why didn't the stimulus work?

#2
#2
Are you kidding, Cspin? There is no telling how bad things would be right now without it.
 
#5
#5
Lack of focus. The tax cuts were widespread and minimal. The funding to the states simply went to cover budget shortfalls rather than investment in expansion, infrastructure etc. The diffused infrastructure spending was parceled out based on politics rather than targeted need with job ROI.

This is why all the talk is about jobs saved rather than jobs created.
 
#6
#6
Best part:

How you spend money is as important as how much you spend. Since the beginning of the recession, the number of unemployed has increased by more than 8 million people. For $800 billion, we could have handed every one of these people a check for $100,000—which gives a sense of what was possible with that much money and just how inefficient the actual program was.
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#7
#7
volinbham said:
Lack of focus. The tax cuts were widespread and minimal. The funding to the states simply went to cover budget shortfalls rather than investment in expansion, infrastructure etc. The diffused infrastructure spending was parceled out based on politics rather than targeted need with job ROI.

This is why all the talk is about jobs saved rather than jobs created.
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I generally agree with this.

Not sure what things would look like without what was done.

Inclined to think that it wasn't worth it, but willing to admit the variables are too complex for anyone to definitively know the answer to that question.

Confident that nevertheless certain people will assure me that they do know the answer and that it is anti-Obama. Just 'cause.
 
#8
#8
lawgator1 said:
I generally agree with this.

Not sure what things would look like without what was done.

Inclined to think that it wasn't worth it, but willing to admit the variables are too complex for anyone to definitively know the answer to that question.

Confident that nevertheless certain people will assure me that they do know the answer and that it is anti-Obama. Just 'cause.
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Barry told us what would happen, he said "if we do nothing unemployment could reach 8%" And we all know Barry is never wrong.
 
#10
#10
well its like when some flatlines in a hospital, they use the defibulator, however to keep it from happening again they use other meds and what not.

same with the stimulus plan, they needed to use something more to go with that "shock"
 
#11
#11
volinbham said:
Lack of focus. The tax cuts were widespread and minimal. The funding to the states simply went to cover budget shortfalls rather than investment in expansion, infrastructure etc. The diffused infrastructure spending was parceled out based on politics rather than targeted need with job ROI.

This is why all the talk is about jobs saved rather than jobs created.
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were they even tax cuts in the true sense? There were a lot of tax credits, rebates, changes to withholding, and such, but I don't think there were any real tax cuts.
 
#13
#13
so, LG's hero's claims that 95% of the American people received a tax cut is, at best, a bending of the truth.
 
#15
#15
I agree with his long term analysis of the stimulus but short term it hasn't been negative considering the low inflation and interest rates.
 
#17
#17
lawgator1 said:
....but willing to admit the variables are too complex for anyone to definitively know the answer to that question.
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Which is PRECISELY why it should have never been done to start with. The first most fundamental error of Keynesian economics or any other centrally planned economic system is the notion that anyone... much less politicians or bureaucrats... is wise enough and well informed enough to make the right spending choices, at the right time, in the right measure.

However, when you de-centralize, the natural economic forces of the free market push money to where it will most effectively create wealth and lift the economy. This is why broad based tax cuts (supply side) work and gov't spending does not.

Confident that nevertheless certain people will assure me that they do know the answer and that it is anti-Obama. Just 'cause.
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No. Not "just 'cause". Obama believes in gov't. He is at least Keynesian in his economic "heart" if not marxist. He genuinely believes in his own wisdom and power and that of other political and academic elites to benevolently rule over everyone else.

He is simply blinded by vanity... and terribly wrong.
 
#18
#18
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Don't know how many noticed but I heard on the
radio that there were an all time high number of
American bank failures last month, August, 2010.

Anyone but me suppose a great deal of that stimulus
money, along with banking reform as pumped up by
Dudd and Fwank, passed by the dhimmis and signed
by obummer enabled an elite few (who probably reside
in far distant capitols), to assume control of most
all banking institutions in Amerca??

Just wondering.

2gtaib8.jpg
 
#22
#22
Not exactly an image you want portrayed going into an election where you are losing for being out of touch.
 
#24
#24
No such thing as shovel ready projects....so now admits the man who said there were during the '08 campaign. Ooops.
 
#25
#25
droski said:
I agree with his long term analysis of the stimulus but short term it hasn't been negative considering the low inflation and interest rates.
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This is a problem I have with most economists (I'm gonna try to get a doctorate, finishing undergrad in a couple months). Even big government-supporting economists will tell you all the pitfalls of manipulating prices. Prices indicate what is going on in the market place*. Almost all economists are fine with manipulating interest rates, but interest rates play a role very similar to price. Better explanation than I could ever make found here:

YouTube - ABCT described by Tom Woods

*For instance the attorney generals in LA and TX warned that any gas station who tried to "price-gouge" Katrina victims would be prosecuted. There was an increased demand for gas, but prices stayed at their normal level and soon there wasn't enough gas to go around. People were stuck in LA. If prices had been allowed to increase, suppliers would have responded and there would have been enough to go around.
 
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