I Don't Think the Stimulus is Working

[Meister]

Productivity is up, so somebody must be selling something. If a company has a product or service that has been successful in the past, there is no reason to believe that should change. Of course people have to start buying again, which is where I think the problem really is. I don't think wise businessmen who know anything about financial forecasting become scared just because the company might have to pay higher taxes. Over time, that's inevitable. Taxes never remain the same. You could cut taxes on them, but they're not going to hire just because they have the extra cash; they already have the extra cash.

Your still claiming they have "extra cash"? Now productivity is up? Geeze, Maggie.....there was 5% growth in the first quarter, and now we are down to 2.4% in the latest quarter. But, please keep spinning about the wise businessmen, maybe a deaf and blind person will believe you.

Wise businessmen will not allow their companies to go down the drain just because they don't particularly like the "political" climate.

Productivity falls 0.9 percent in second quarter
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER,
AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer
Tue Aug 10, 11:03 am ET

WASHINGTON – Worker productivity dropped this spring for the first time in more than a year, a sign that companies may need to step up hiring if they hope to grow.

Productivity declined at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the April-to-June quarter after posting large gains throughout 2009, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Unit labor costs edged up 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the first increase since the spring of 2009.

Output of U.S. workers is the key ingredient to boosting living standards. It allows companies to pay workers more because of the increased production without being forced to raise the cost of their goods, which sparks inflation.

In most cases a slip in productivity would be a troubling sign for the economy. But some analysts believe a short-term drop is needed to boost the recovery. That's because it could be a signal that employers can no longer squeeze extra output out of leaner staffs.

"This could be a turning point as far as hiring goes," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors

Companies cut their payrolls during the recession and relied on fewer workers. For all of 2009, productivity shot up 3.5 percent, the best performance in six years.
However, over the two years of the recession, 8.4 million jobs were lost. Unemployment hit a high of 10.1 percent last fall and is now at 9.5 percent.

Economists believe companies need to stop slashing their work forces and start rehiring laid off workers. That will boost incomes and give households the support they need to increase consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. And that would ultimately lead to more demand for those companies' products.

"Economists often tout the long-run benefits of strong productivity growth, but given the precarious state of the economy, a little more employment, even at the expense of productivity, would likely be helpful in the near term," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Stocks retreated Tuesday as investors grew more cautious ahead of an announcement on interest rate policies later Tuesday by the Federal Reserve.

A second economic report Tuesday showed that inventories held by wholesale businesses edged up only a slight 0.1 percent in June while sales fell 0.7 percent.

It was the second consecutive drop in sales at the wholesale level and the biggest decline in 15 months. It raised worries about whether demand may be faltering, a development which could cause businesses to cutback on their restocking and act as a further drag on the economy.

A slowing in productivity and a rise in unit labor costs will not raise worries about inflation in the current environment because inflation pressures at the moment are nonexistent.

In fact, some analysts believe the bigger threat is the possibility of deflation, a destabilizing bout of falling prices and wages.

The 0.9 percent drop in productivity in the second quarter was the first decline since a 0.1 percent dip in the fourth quarter of 2008. It was the biggest fall since a 1.3 percent decrease in the third quarter of 2008.

The 0.2 percent rise in unit labor costs followed a 3.7 percent plunge in labor costs in the first quarter. It was the first increase since a 0.6 percent rise in the second quarter of last year.

Productivity falls 0.9 percent in second quarter - Yahoo! News

With no one able to buy their products, they will go out of business. It's really that simple.

Economists? Which economists are you talking about? There are several that say we could very well slide into another recession. Just depends on who you want to believe. Fact is....small businesses are not going to hire until they see the how Obama's policies are going to be played out, Maggie. It's their wallet, not the damn economists with a crystal ball. The only people that are being helped by barry's stimulus is government employees and union members, Maggie.....and at what cost per job?
Keep spinning, I see your trying.

 

[saveliberty]

The government seems hellbent on providing me lots of competition in my landscape business. Illegals who can be underpaid, underinsured, and untaxed are really making me want to go out and provide benefits, higher pay and more jobs.

How is that "the government's" fault today anymore than it was four years ago? I have a suggestion: If you KNOW some of your competitors are hiring illegals, REPORT IT. With today's public mood on illegal immigration, I'm sure your complaints would get results.

Because they have allowed the problem to fester for an additional four more years. Because that means there are four more years of damage done. With the government's attitude over illegal immigration, whoever gets caught today is replaced within the week. I'm trying to work, not be the enforcer.

 

[KissMy]

61 Percent of Employees Live Paycheck to Paycheck

One-third reduce long-term savings plans to make ends meet. A majority of American employees are finding themselves hard-pressed to live up to their household budgets, according to a new report from CareerBuilder. The survey of more than 4,400 full-time U.S. staffers found that 61 percent of respondents reported that they always or usually live paycheck to paycheck, an increase from 47 percent in 2008.

One-in-five workers (21 percent) polled said they are taking money from their long-term savings to satisfy financial burdens and have decreased their personal savings or 401(k) contributions over the last six months.

One-third of employees have forgone long-term savings plans. They have increased their savings each month (33 percent) and do not participate in 401(k)s, IRAs or other retirement plans (36 percent). Of those who did attempt to save, 30 percent saved $100 per month and 16 percent saved less than $50 per month.

 

[MaggieMae]

Your still claiming they have "extra cash"? Now productivity is up? Geeze, Maggie.....there was 5% growth in the first quarter, and now we are down to 2.4% in the latest quarter. But, please keep spinning about the wise businessmen, maybe a deaf and blind person will believe you.

Wise businessmen will not allow their companies to go down the drain just because they don't particularly like the "political" climate.

Productivity falls 0.9 percent in second quarter
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER,
AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer
Tue Aug 10, 11:03 am ET

WASHINGTON – Worker productivity dropped this spring for the first time in more than a year, a sign that companies may need to step up hiring if they hope to grow.

Productivity declined at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the April-to-June quarter after posting large gains throughout 2009, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Unit labor costs edged up 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the first increase since the spring of 2009.

Output of U.S. workers is the key ingredient to boosting living standards. It allows companies to pay workers more because of the increased production without being forced to raise the cost of their goods, which sparks inflation.

In most cases a slip in productivity would be a troubling sign for the economy. But some analysts believe a short-term drop is needed to boost the recovery. That's because it could be a signal that employers can no longer squeeze extra output out of leaner staffs.

"This could be a turning point as far as hiring goes," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors

Companies cut their payrolls during the recession and relied on fewer workers. For all of 2009, productivity shot up 3.5 percent, the best performance in six years.
However, over the two years of the recession, 8.4 million jobs were lost. Unemployment hit a high of 10.1 percent last fall and is now at 9.5 percent.

Economists believe companies need to stop slashing their work forces and start rehiring laid off workers. That will boost incomes and give households the support they need to increase consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. And that would ultimately lead to more demand for those companies' products.

"Economists often tout the long-run benefits of strong productivity growth, but given the precarious state of the economy, a little more employment, even at the expense of productivity, would likely be helpful in the near term," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Stocks retreated Tuesday as investors grew more cautious ahead of an announcement on interest rate policies later Tuesday by the Federal Reserve.

A second economic report Tuesday showed that inventories held by wholesale businesses edged up only a slight 0.1 percent in June while sales fell 0.7 percent.

It was the second consecutive drop in sales at the wholesale level and the biggest decline in 15 months. It raised worries about whether demand may be faltering, a development which could cause businesses to cutback on their restocking and act as a further drag on the economy.

A slowing in productivity and a rise in unit labor costs will not raise worries about inflation in the current environment because inflation pressures at the moment are nonexistent.

In fact, some analysts believe the bigger threat is the possibility of deflation, a destabilizing bout of falling prices and wages.

The 0.9 percent drop in productivity in the second quarter was the first decline since a 0.1 percent dip in the fourth quarter of 2008. It was the biggest fall since a 1.3 percent decrease in the third quarter of 2008.

The 0.2 percent rise in unit labor costs followed a 3.7 percent plunge in labor costs in the first quarter. It was the first increase since a 0.6 percent rise in the second quarter of last year.

Productivity falls 0.9 percent in second quarter - Yahoo! News

With no one able to buy their products, they will go out of business. It's really that simple.

Economists? Which economists are you talking about? There are several that say we could very well slide into another recession. Just depends on who you want to believe. Fact is....small businesses are not going to hire until they see the how Obama's policies are going to be played out, Maggie. It's their wallet, not the damn economists with a crystal ball. The only people that are being helped by barry's stimulus is government employees and union members, Maggie.....and at what cost per job?
Keep spinning, I see your trying.

You may disagree with everything I've posted, but it's certainly not spin. Spin would be if I had only posted statements made by Obama or his staff.

As for the stimulus and job creation, I think that's been covered intensely in this thread, so to repeat it all would be exhausting (especially if you chose not to read any of it the first time). Let's just say a job is a job is a job, whether it's a temporary government job or one that indirectly resulted from a government stimulus program.

 

[MaggieMae]

The government seems hellbent on providing me lots of competition in my landscape business. Illegals who can be underpaid, underinsured, and untaxed are really making me want to go out and provide benefits, higher pay and more jobs.

How is that "the government's" fault today anymore than it was four years ago? I have a suggestion: If you KNOW some of your competitors are hiring illegals, REPORT IT. With today's public mood on illegal immigration, I'm sure your complaints would get results.

Because they have allowed the problem to fester for an additional four more years. Because that means there are four more years of damage done. With the government's attitude over illegal immigration, whoever gets caught today is replaced within the week. I'm trying to work, not be the enforcer.

So whining about it accomplishes what? I'll bet if enough of you and your friends who are being shut out made enough phone calls to ICE about this situation, giving as many details as you can about who is doing it, something would be done.

I know you guys hate government rules and regulations, but I think if there was a mandate that all employers must use the E-Verify system for hiring or be heavily fined if illegals are found working who have not been pre-screened, it would slam the door on hiring illegals, period. Right now, it's only mandatory for government contractors.

USCIS - More E-Verify FAQs

 

[Meister]

Wise businessmen will not allow their companies to go down the drain just because they don't particularly like the "political" climate.

Productivity falls 0.9 percent in second quarter
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER,
AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer
Tue Aug 10, 11:03 am ET

WASHINGTON – Worker productivity dropped this spring for the first time in more than a year, a sign that companies may need to step up hiring if they hope to grow.

Productivity declined at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the April-to-June quarter after posting large gains throughout 2009, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Unit labor costs edged up 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the first increase since the spring of 2009.

Output of U.S. workers is the key ingredient to boosting living standards. It allows companies to pay workers more because of the increased production without being forced to raise the cost of their goods, which sparks inflation.

In most cases a slip in productivity would be a troubling sign for the economy. But some analysts believe a short-term drop is needed to boost the recovery. That's because it could be a signal that employers can no longer squeeze extra output out of leaner staffs.

"This could be a turning point as far as hiring goes," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors

Companies cut their payrolls during the recession and relied on fewer workers. For all of 2009, productivity shot up 3.5 percent, the best performance in six years.
However, over the two years of the recession, 8.4 million jobs were lost. Unemployment hit a high of 10.1 percent last fall and is now at 9.5 percent.

Economists believe companies need to stop slashing their work forces and start rehiring laid off workers. That will boost incomes and give households the support they need to increase consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. And that would ultimately lead to more demand for those companies' products.

"Economists often tout the long-run benefits of strong productivity growth, but given the precarious state of the economy, a little more employment, even at the expense of productivity, would likely be helpful in the near term," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Stocks retreated Tuesday as investors grew more cautious ahead of an announcement on interest rate policies later Tuesday by the Federal Reserve.

A second economic report Tuesday showed that inventories held by wholesale businesses edged up only a slight 0.1 percent in June while sales fell 0.7 percent.

It was the second consecutive drop in sales at the wholesale level and the biggest decline in 15 months. It raised worries about whether demand may be faltering, a development which could cause businesses to cutback on their restocking and act as a further drag on the economy.

A slowing in productivity and a rise in unit labor costs will not raise worries about inflation in the current environment because inflation pressures at the moment are nonexistent.

In fact, some analysts believe the bigger threat is the possibility of deflation, a destabilizing bout of falling prices and wages.

The 0.9 percent drop in productivity in the second quarter was the first decline since a 0.1 percent dip in the fourth quarter of 2008. It was the biggest fall since a 1.3 percent decrease in the third quarter of 2008.

The 0.2 percent rise in unit labor costs followed a 3.7 percent plunge in labor costs in the first quarter. It was the first increase since a 0.6 percent rise in the second quarter of last year.

Productivity falls 0.9 percent in second quarter - Yahoo! News

With no one able to buy their products, they will go out of business. It's really that simple.

Economists? Which economists are you talking about? There are several that say we could very well slide into another recession. Just depends on who you want to believe. Fact is....small businesses are not going to hire until they see the how Obama's policies are going to be played out, Maggie. It's their wallet, not the damn economists with a crystal ball. The only people that are being helped by barry's stimulus is government employees and union members, Maggie.....and at what cost per job?
Keep spinning, I see your trying.

You may disagree with everything I've posted, but it's certainly not spin. Spin would be if I had only posted statements made by Obama or his staff.

As for the stimulus and job creation, I think that's been covered intensely in this thread, so to repeat it all would be exhausting (especially if you chose not to read any of it the first time). Let's just say a job is a job is a job, whether it's a temporary government job or one that indirectly resulted from a government stimulus program.

Try not to address the cost of each job created, Maggie, it is a staggering cost.
When has increased spending and increased deficits at these levels ever created a good economic environment? This is why barry needs to go in a different direction. His ideals and yours apparently, is going to leave high unemployment, and businesses not willing to hire because of the looming increase in taxes.

 

[Samson]

Economists? Which economists are you talking about? There are several that say we could very well slide into another recession. Just depends on who you want to believe. Fact is....small businesses are not going to hire until they see the how Obama's policies are going to be played out, Maggie. It's their wallet, not the damn economists with a crystal ball. The only people that are being helped by barry's stimulus is government employees and union members, Maggie.....and at what cost per job?
Keep spinning, I see your trying.

You may disagree with everything I've posted, but it's certainly not spin. Spin would be if I had only posted statements made by Obama or his staff.

As for the stimulus and job creation, I think that's been covered intensely in this thread, so to repeat it all would be exhausting (especially if you chose not to read any of it the first time). Let's just say a job is a job is a job, whether it's a temporary government job or one that indirectly resulted from a government stimulus program.

Try not to address the cost of each job created, Maggie, it is a staggering cost.
When has increased spending and increased deficits at these levels ever created a good economic environment? This is why barry needs to go in a different direction. His ideals and yours apparently, is going to leave high unemployment, and businesses not willing to hire because of the looming increase in taxes.

Rest assured, she won't logically address anything:

$750,000,000,000/3,500,000 jobs = WHAT MAGGIE??? Can't do the math????

 

[saveliberty]

You may disagree with everything I've posted, but it's certainly not spin. Spin would be if I had only posted statements made by Obama or his staff.

As for the stimulus and job creation, I think that's been covered intensely in this thread, so to repeat it all would be exhausting (especially if you chose not to read any of it the first time). Let's just say a job is a job is a job, whether it's a temporary government job or one that indirectly resulted from a government stimulus program.

They are not jobs, but project hires. A job would continue after the project is done and you went to the next site or project.

 

[Foxfyre]

You may disagree with everything I've posted, but it's certainly not spin. Spin would be if I had only posted statements made by Obama or his staff.

As for the stimulus and job creation, I think that's been covered intensely in this thread, so to repeat it all would be exhausting (especially if you chose not to read any of it the first time). Let's just say a job is a job is a job, whether it's a temporary government job or one that indirectly resulted from a government stimulus program.

They are not jobs, but project hires. A job would continue after the project is done and you went to the next site or project.

Can't you just see it? They issue a contract for say $100k to build a storage building for a day care center. The grant applicant needs $50k of course to design the building and another $40K or so for overhead, materials, management fees and buy an easement for the land to put the building on. Then he hires five day laborers at the employment office to put the building up which takes about 8 hours.

And voila! Six jobs are created with just $100,000. At least that seems to be the way the accounting is going.

(This is an actual RL scenario, by the way, of an actual government grant except for the job creation part which wasn't a factor in this particular grant. Because the grant recipient had 'connections' he wasn't prosecuted for fraud but it was definitely reported in the Kansas City Star as an example of government waste.)

 

[Samson]

You may disagree with everything I've posted, but it's certainly not spin. Spin would be if I had only posted statements made by Obama or his staff.

As for the stimulus and job creation, I think that's been covered intensely in this thread, so to repeat it all would be exhausting (especially if you chose not to read any of it the first time). Let's just say a job is a job is a job, whether it's a temporary government job or one that indirectly resulted from a government stimulus program.

They are not jobs, but project hires. A job would continue after the project is done and you went to the next site or project.

Can't you just see it?

No, Maggie and The Drones cannot see it. Obama lied when he said $750B spending would be done with full accountability, and now money is being thrown hapazardly around the nation in the biggest Pork Fest since BBQ was invented.

If I were you, I wouldn't raise the bar so high, simply expect Maggie to Parrot: "Its Bush's Fault," and "DelaaaaAAAAAAY."

Throw her a cracker now and then; she'll be fine.

 

[hylandrdet]

They are not jobs, but project hires. A job would continue after the project is done and you went to the next site or project.

Can't you just see it?

No, Maggie and The Drones cannot see it. Obama lied when he said $750B spending would be done with full accountability, and now money is being thrown hapazardly around the nation in the biggest Pork Fest since BBQ was invented.

If I were you, I wouldn't raise the bar so high, simply expect Maggie to Parrot: "Its Bush's Fault," and "DelaaaaAAAAAAY."

Throw her a cracker now and then; she'll be fine.

That's not true Samson; only Alaska, Sarah Palin's state, is spending the stimulus money the way it was meant to be spent (45% spent).

How can you logically call the stimulus bill a failure when nobody's spending the money?

Your floor...

 

[Meister]

Can't you just see it?

No, Maggie and The Drones cannot see it. Obama lied when he said $750B spending would be done with full accountability, and now money is being thrown hapazardly around the nation in the biggest Pork Fest since BBQ was invented.

If I were you, I wouldn't raise the bar so high, simply expect Maggie to Parrot: "Its Bush's Fault," and "DelaaaaAAAAAAY."

Throw her a cracker now and then; she'll be fine.

That's not true Samson; only Alaska, Sarah Palin's state, is spending the stimulus money the way it was meant to be spent (45% spent).

How can you logically call the stimulus bill a failure when nobody's spending the money?

Your floor...

Deeper in debt, private sector is barely hiring, unemployment is nearly 10%, Barry's asking for another stimulus, and just a lot of money is being paid back to the unions from the stimulus.

Your floor.....

 

[Samson]

Can't you just see it?

No, Maggie and The Drones cannot see it. Obama lied when he said $750B spending would be done with full accountability, and now money is being thrown hapazardly around the nation in the biggest Pork Fest since BBQ was invented.

If I were you, I wouldn't raise the bar so high, simply expect Maggie to Parrot: "Its Bush's Fault," and "DelaaaaAAAAAAY."

Throw her a cracker now and then; she'll be fine.

That's not true Samson; only Alaska, Sarah Palin's state, is spending the stimulus money the way it was meant to be spent (45% spent).

How can you logically call the stimulus bill a failure when nobody's spending the money?

Your floor...

Nobody's spending the money?

Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages this website and oversees spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, would disagree

But I'm not surprised you may be confused: Devaney said August 16, 2010:

Government can be a mysterious institution. Indeed, the pathway to understanding how your tax dollars are being spent can be a very difficult journey, much like trying to find your way out of the ancient catacombs.

 

[Perry2016]

Hmmm....yeah, well in actuality all of these special projects were requested by your Republican reps.

And, furthermore, it is the Republicans who are stalling on extending unemployment insurance and the President who wants to extend it and has created programs such as "Making Work Pay" which lets you and I take home more money from our paychecks

And I would we very wary of any source from FoxNews, which is incredibly biased towards the Republican base.

Wonder why the stimulus package that was supposed to create so many good jobs that the unemployment rate wouldn’t go past 7.5% hasn’t created many good jobs and the unemployment rate continues to be stuck around 9.5%? Meanwhile Europe’s economy continues to boom. Even Germany that normally has high unemployment rates can boast a 7.5% rate this summer.

So what’s wrong?

Well some of the projects the stimulus money has gone for:

A half million dollars for new windows at the Mt. St. Helens visitors center in Amboy, Washington. The building has been closed since 2007 and there are no immediate plans to reopen it

$6.9 million dollars for repairs to an 1846 brick fort marooned on Dry Tortuga at the end the Florida Keys. Few people can visit this remote national park unless they hire a seaplane or take a four-hour round-trip boat ride.

Creating a museum in an abandoned train station in Glasboro, NJ, at the cost of $1.2 million

$2 million dollars to send researchers from the California Academy of Sciences to islands in the Indian Ocean to study exotic ants

A study of dog domestication at Cornell University with a price tag of $296-thousand dollars

$141-thousand dollars to send students from Montana State University to China to study dinosaur eggs

$762-thousand dollars to create interactive choreography programs at the University of North Carolina. Dancers would wear electronic monitors to analyze their movements.

$89-thousand dollars to replace sidewalks in Boynton, Oklahoma that were just replaced five years ago. One of them goes nowhere near any houses or businesses and leads directly into a ditch.



One analysis I’ve seen that so far what private sector jobs have been created have been at a cost exceeding $300,000 per job.

But Obama and the Dems in Congress refuse to consider using unspent stimulus money to cover costs of extending unemployment insurance which the Republicans have asked for in lieu of increasing the deficit even more.. Instead they accuse the Republicans of blocking extension of unemployment insurance.

Honestly people. Don’t you think we should expect better of our government than this?

 

[loosecannon]

No, Maggie and The Drones cannot see it. Obama lied when he said $750B spending would be done with full accountability, and now money is being thrown hapazardly around the nation in the biggest Pork Fest since BBQ was invented.

If I were you, I wouldn't raise the bar so high, simply expect Maggie to Parrot: "Its Bush's Fault," and "DelaaaaAAAAAAY."

Throw her a cracker now and then; she'll be fine.

That's not true Samson; only Alaska, Sarah Palin's state, is spending the stimulus money the way it was meant to be spent (45% spent).

How can you logically call the stimulus bill a failure when nobody's spending the money?

Your floor...

Nobody's spending the money?

Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages this website and oversees spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, would disagree

But I'm not surprised you may be confused: Devaney said August 16, 2010:

Government can be a mysterious institution. Indeed, the pathway to understanding how your tax dollars are being spent can be a very difficult journey, much like trying to find your way out of the ancient catacombs.

Pardon me, but where exactly did that link say that the stimulus had been spent?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Foxfyre]

It's always interesting to see an old thread regenerated and it picks up right where it left off.

But the fact is there are tens of thousands up to hundreds of thousands of new unemployment claims every month. Consumer confidence continues to erode and the stock market is as edgy as ever as investors see that all those foreign countries holding our debt are losing confidence in our ability to repay it. That does not bode well for investors, for home owners, for jobs, for anybody.

Some samplings:

All the stimulus Congress can create -- including Wednesday's promise to send an additional $3 billion of TARP funds to struggling homeowners -- won't get consumers past the fear zone. In fact, it will just prolong the housing crisis as this failed program already has done. And it will further destroy the confidence of buyers and builders.

All the money the Fed can create won't get business going again without the critical ingredient called confidence. And confidence is just what the Fed undermined with its latest promise to keep creating new credit in the banking system and keep interest rates near zero -- all in an attempt to "stimulate" the economy.
Truth in Jobs A Project of FreedomWorks

And in the middle of the most ambitious pork fest any government has EVER lavished on its citizens, we have yet to see much if any sign of the promised recovery:

The President reported that the stimulus package would create or save over 3 million jobs in the next two years. It’s been a year and a half, and according to the June 2010 unemployment numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Tennessee’s unemployment rate is 10.1 percent. In February 2009 when the stimulus was signed into law, the unemployment rate in Tennessee was 9.1 percent. Any way you cut it, we are headed the wrong way.

With nonsense stimulus projects such as an $893 million renovation plan for the Department of Commerce Building (the same Department of Commerce that doesn’t seem to know how to promote commerce), it is no wonder the American people are questioning what the heck government is doing. I still believe there are responsible ways to promote job growth and stimulate the economy, but we sure can’t continue down this path of reckless spending. It seems that proponents of this bill thought that if you threw enough money out there, things would get better, regardless of where the money went. We know this just isn’t true.

Read more: 100 reasons why the stimulus isn’t working | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

 

[Samson]

That's not true Samson; only Alaska, Sarah Palin's state, is spending the stimulus money the way it was meant to be spent (45% spent).

How can you logically call the stimulus bill a failure when nobody's spending the money?

Your floor...

Nobody's spending the money?

Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages this website and oversees spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, would disagree

But I'm not surprised you may be confused: Devaney said August 16, 2010:

Government can be a mysterious institution. Indeed, the pathway to understanding how your tax dollars are being spent can be a very difficult journey, much like trying to find your way out of the ancient catacombs.

Pardon me, but where exactly did that link say that the stimulus had been spent?

Thanks in advance.

The Huge BOLD LETTERING of the obscure title makes it difficult to find:

Overview of Funding

This is all the spoon-feeding of idiots for which I have patience.

 

[loosecannon]

Nobody's spending the money?

Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages this website and oversees spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, would disagree

But I'm not surprised you may be confused: Devaney said August 16, 2010:

Pardon me, but where exactly did that link say that the stimulus had been spent?

Thanks in advance.

The Huge BOLD LETTERING of the obscure title makes it difficult to find:

Overview of Funding

This is all the spoon-feeding of idiots for which I have patience.

ok, so 2/3 of it has been delivered but not necessarily spent.

it wasn't obvious where the link spelled it out as your reference said nothing of the kind:

But I'm not surprised you may be confused: Devaney said August 16, 2010

http://www.recovery.gov/News/chairman/Pages/2010Aug16.aspx

read his message from that exact date, it in no way spelled out that the funds had been spent.

You misdirected us. But thanks for the clarification.

 

[Londoner]

1938 in 2010
By PK
Here’s the situation: The U.S. economy has been crippled by a financial crisis. The president’s policies have limited the damage, but they were too cautious, and unemployment remains disastrously high. More action is clearly needed. Yet the public has soured on government activism, and seems poised to deal Democrats a severe defeat in the midterm elections.

The president in question is Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the year is 1938. Within a few years, of course, the Great Depression was over. But it’s both instructive and discouraging to look at the state of America circa 1938 — instructive because the nature of the recovery that followed refutes the arguments dominating today’s public debate, discouraging because it’s hard to see anything like the miracle of the 1940s happening again.

Now, we weren’t supposed to find ourselves replaying the late 1930s. President Obama’s economists promised not to repeat the mistakes of 1937, when F.D.R. pulled back fiscal stimulus too soon. But by making his program too small and too short-lived, Mr. Obama did just that: the stimulus raised growth while it lasted, but it made only a small dent in unemployment — and now it’s fading out.

And just as some of us feared, the inadequacy of the administration’s initial economic plan has landed it — and the nation — in a political trap. More stimulus is desperately needed, but in the public’s eyes the failure of the initial program to deliver a convincing recovery has discredited government action to create jobs.

In short, welcome to 1938.

The story of 1937, of F.D.R.’s disastrous decision to heed those who said that it was time to slash the deficit, is well known. What’s less well known is the extent to which the public drew the wrong conclusions from the recession that followed: far from calling for a resumption of New Deal programs, voters lost faith in fiscal expansion.

Consider Gallup polling from March 1938. Asked whether government spending should be increased to fight the slump, 63 percent of those polled said no. Asked whether it would be better to increase spending or to cut business taxes, only 15 percent favored spending; 63 percent favored tax cuts. And the 1938 election was a disaster for the Democrats, who lost 70 seats in the House and seven in the Senate.

Then came the war.

From an economic point of view World War II was, above all, a burst of deficit-financed government spending, on a scale that would never have been approved otherwise. Over the course of the war the federal government borrowed an amount equal to roughly twice the value of G.D.P. in 1940 — the equivalent of roughly $30 trillion today.

Had anyone proposed spending even a fraction that much before the war, people would have said the same things they’re saying today. They would have warned about crushing debt and runaway inflation. They would also have said, rightly, that the Depression was in large part caused by excess debt — and then have declared that it was impossible to fix this problem by issuing even more debt.

But guess what? Deficit spending created an economic boom — and the boom laid the foundation for long-run prosperity. Overall debt in the economy — public plus private — actually fell as a percentage of G.D.P., thanks to economic growth and, yes, some inflation, which reduced the real value of outstanding debts. And after the war, thanks to the improved financial position of the private sector, the economy was able to thrive without continuing deficits.

The economic moral is clear: when the economy is deeply depressed, the usual rules don’t apply. Austerity is self-defeating: when everyone tries to pay down debt at the same time, the result is depression and deflation, and debt problems grow even worse. And conversely, it is possible — indeed, necessary — for the nation as a whole to spend its way out of debt: a temporary surge of deficit spending, on a sufficient scale, can cure problems brought on by past excesses.

But the story of 1938 also shows how hard it is to apply these insights. Even under F.D.R., there was never the political will to do what was needed to end the Great Depression; its eventual resolution came essentially by accident.

I had hoped that we would do better this time. But it turns out that politicians and economists alike have spent decades unlearning the lessons of the 1930s, and are determined to repeat all the old mistakes. And it’s slightly sickening to realize that the big winners in the midterm elections are likely to be the very people who first got us into this mess, then did everything in their power to block action to get us out.

But always remember: this slump can be cured. All it will take is a little bit of intellectual clarity, and a lot of political will. Here’s hoping we find those virtues in the not too distant future.

 

[Foxfyre]

ACK!!! Londoner. So much of that small red print is extremely unpleasant and difficult to read. So I didn't read it all but got the gist. And you're right. Our current fearless leaders are implementing the exact folly the lengthened and deepened the recession/depression of the 30's and learned nothing.

Maybe somebody can help me confirm this, but I was listening to some financial gurus recently--I failed to note the station or the names involved--talking about the deficit. According to them, the total accumulated Federal deficits for the 220 years from when the U.S. government began operations to the day Barack Obama took office was about 9 trilion dollars.

The Obama administration and current congress will have racked up 3 trillion in deficits in their first two years and have delivered almost nothing on what they promised to deliver with all that money.

Also, keep in mind, that the promises were that the money would also go to rebuild America's infrastructure and would be issued for shovel ready jobs that would put people back to work. Well, as anybody who is able to be at all intellectually honest knows, that hasn't happened and it won't be happening with the current stimulus package.

So, what does our fearless leader propose to correct this abysmal situation? Today he proposed that it is time to address America's crumbling infrastructure and proposes a new mega billion dollar stimulus to be paid for with higher taxes on oil and gas producers.

ARRRRRRGH!!!!! You can't make this stuff up. And what do you want to bet there are still some who will defend him about this!!!!!'