American Morning
Economist: Obama's stimulus doomed to fail
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/morici.peter.art.jpg caption="Peter Morici of the University of Maryland says President Obama's economic stimulus plan is doomed to fail."]
It's been five months since President Obama signed his stimulus plan in to law. It includes more than $250 billion of government spending and tax breaks meant to create jobs. Yesterday, the president said unemployment may get worse before things turn around.
Peter Morici is a professor of international business at the University of Maryland and former economic director for the United States International Trade Commission. He says President Obama’s stimulus plan is doomed to fail. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.5% last month. There's debate on whether the stimulus is working and if it's working quickly enough. The White House says we are on target. But a lot of people are asking when are we going to see the effects? You, though, say it's doomed to fail. Why?
Peter Morici: The stimulus money is very badly spent. We knew the tax cuts from the Bush stimulus don't work. People are simply saving it. If you wanted stimulus to work, spend it mostly on shovel-ready projects, infrastructure, schools, hospitals, etc. But only $100 billion of the $800 billion is spent there.
Chetry: When you say shovel-ready – they found it a challenge within the administration to find shovel-ready projects, at least that’s what many are saying, in these various states. How do you get that better organized so indeed if the money is there, only 10% has gone out, they can get it to projects that are ready to go?
Morici: I'm no Republican, but what President Obama is discovering is how slow the bureaucracy moves. It's very hard to push this kind of money through the system. Also, all of the red tape that the government has created doing construction has made it very difficult. I could get the money out there. But Obama doesn't seem to be capable of getting it done. The advisers don't seem to be able to get it done. What you got to do is just hand it to the mayors and county executives and say, “You got to spend x by the end of this year.” Then give them another chunk for next year – “You got to spend that by the end of the year and so forth or you don't get to keep the money.” Most municipalities and counties have a long list of renovation projects they’re holding in abeyance because they don’t have enough cash. That’s the way to get it out. President Obama is not thinking in those terms. Instead, he beefs up the Department of Education.
Chetry: What they're saying within the administration is some of this money has actually been going to plug budget gaps. We know a lot of these local municipalities and state governments are suffering right now. If it's not sort of earmarked for something, it’s going to go to plug the budget holes. How do you make sure it’s actually going to go to things that will create jobs, like building roads, jobs, schools, construction?
Morici: You have to require it. You have to say, “We're giving you $100 billion by the end of 2009“ – you divide it up by population – “it must be used for the following kinds of projects: renovating schools, reconditioning hospitals, things of that nature.” And you know, the state and local governments for all their crying, and all of Mr. Obama’s exertations, weren't laying people off. Employment was growing through the time the stimulus package was signed. Both education, noneducation, state, and local. And since it's been signed, it’s continued to grow at approximately the same pace. I can find no discernible effect in the Department of Labor statistics for state and local employment that would indicate the stimulus is having any effect whatsoever. It’s an absolute fraud in that regard.
Chetry: Yesterday, the president said we have to have patience when it comes to this and the plan was intended to work not in a couple of months but in two years. You say, though, that patience would fix a normal cyclical problem, a downturn and then an upturn in the economy. But you're calling this a structural problem – and it has to do with the fact that we don't manufacture enough here. What is the solution?
Morici: Well, we import too much from China without selling there. One of the best-selling cars in China are Buicks, believe it or not. But they won't buy any Buicks made in the United States. They have a 25% tariff and they require General Motors not only to make them there, but to move their suppliers there. That's why the Midwest is melting down. Because it’s not just Buicks and cars, it's all manner of high-end industrial products for which China's cheap labor doesn't provide an advantage. That’s about 50% of the trade deficit. The other half is oil. President Obama's windmills are not going to solve that. We need dramatically higher mileage standards right now. And we need a real clunker subsidy to get the big cars off of the road. For example, replace the Tahoes with Traverses – very big car but it gets twice the gas mileage.
Chetry: The other thing you talked about is the private sector shedding 6.6 million jobs, half of those being shed in manufacturing and construction. We know the housing market is struggling. What's the solution if you use that stimulus money to try to get people back to work and beef up manufacturing here in our country?
Morici: Well, essentially, you have to recalibrate trade with China, one way or the other. You have to get it to unhinge its currency and stop manipulating its currency. It's buying about $400 billion a year of U.S. dollars with yuan that it prints, basically giving them to us and then that basically keeps their currency cheap and makes those products artificially cheap in our markets. With regard to construction – we really have built too many houses. We're over-housed right now. There’s an excess supply. So what you need to do is move those construction workers, as I said earlier, in to infrastructure – rehabilitating schools. The same guy that can put a roof on a house can put a roof on a school.
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Obama hasn't really had a chance to prove himself as yet. He was handed a pile of sh#@ left to him by the previous adminstration. I used to be a republican. But I'm adament about telling people that I did not vofote for that idiot BUSH. We should never have elected a man of his nature into office as president. He was a pampered rich boy who had never really earned anything on his own . His track record of anytype of management even in the corporate world was at best lackluster. So why did anyone think he could be a good president. Most of his administrative ALL we heard were excuses as why things he did failed. To me often on that stage he looked like Jerry Mahoney, the dummy with Cheney's hand up his back telling him what to say.
It was embarassing to have George Bush as president. The greatest country in the world with a FOOL for it's leader. What a joke to the world that was. He was dishonest making himself and his oil friends and rich republican friends vastly richer off the backs of the american people. Thats how the finances of the US got where they are now.
Obamas plan may not have worked yet, BUT making everything visible is the TRUE answer for our survival for america here. Paying the top management of corporations LESS than what they are currently being paid. The have's and have nots are way out of balance in this company , it needs to be drastically back into balance for the company to survive.
He's not an idiot, friend! He is a conman, and nothing more! Have you people never seen a conman before? We are being completely robbed here!! And, I hear that it is being appealed to the court that he really never did have a birth certificate to begin with, and was NEVER a legal US citizen, having been born here! They filed it yesterday, I think. They are claiming that we were misled and that this conman took the presidency with a fake ID. They seem to think that they have proof! On top of it ...that would mean that they already lied in a federal court!! Leave it to the demos!! What a mess and a shame! If this is true, I want to see an impeachment and Federal charges placed on anyone who was involved in this treasonous act against the US Americans!! They were supposed to file it in Atlanta. CNN, again PLEASE keep us posted!
Einstein’s definition of an IDIOT. Someone who continues to do the same thing and expects different results. Second stimulus?
I'm surprised and very disappointed that the stimulus money hasn't yet gotten into the nation's economic hard-drive. Are our leaders overly diligent or just incompetent? I hope CNN continues to keep us alerted to unfolding developments regarding this matter.
The funny thing here is reading all the responses of those who want Obama to resign and/or are looking forward to the 2010 and 2012 elections to bring him down or bring a so called change. What these brainiacs fail to recognize is that no matter who gets to that position, he/she will have to do the same thing or something close to what's in place right now. Politicians say anything and everything to get elected, which is the cool aid that all fools want to drink because it is of their party affiliation. The failure to progress and fix problems in this country is not because who is in office, it is due to all those who hate the other party and would rather see the country go to hell, than to betray their political line. To whom should politicians show their alliance? It should not be to a political party, but to the people who elected them. Unfortunately, neither party is willing to drop the crap and get to work as one nation.
Spend less, spend more. Bigger government, smaller government. Less taxes, more taxes.
You're all wrong....... it's not degrees of these things, it's what you get for what you pay.
We could pay $100 a year per person in taxes and get nothing for it and that's a bad deal, but we could pay $25,000 a year in taxes and get something and it's still a bad deal.
What we (as citizens) should ask for is more efficient government. Let's get a good deal for our taxes. We should be chanting "more bang for our bucks"..... meaning that what we pay in taxes is spent well and not wasted.
Would you complain about taxes if you had good roads, health care, military, police, emergency services, education, etc. ? Of course not. But, you would complain if you had no roads, helth care, etc., even if you pain $0 in taxes.......
"MORE BANG FOR OUR BUCKS"
Both major political parties are robbing the people blind for the power elite in this country (Congress, special interests, the Fed Reserve, and their banking buddies). They argue with each other just enough to keep the citizens of this country split along party lines on things that don't really matter and then meet each other after session for drinks and food at fine Washington steak houses and toast themselves. They don't want us united lest we throw them all out of office, abolish the Fed and its insidious fiat money printing machine, and go back to governing as a Constitututional Republic. There will be no real change until the monopoly of dems and repubs is done away with.
Now that many of you have taken the above little test. Here are some more questions.
Questions
1) Does Obamas plan provide for cheap and plentiful energy for all or an expensive and scarce supply?
2) Does Obamas plan call for low or high corporate taxes?
3) Does Obamas plan give you more or less money to spend in your paycheck?
4) Is Obamas plan on the right track?
Answers
1) expensive and scarce. If he wanted cheap and plentiful that drastically lowers CO2 output, nuclear is the current answer, and for the future we should invest very heavily into fusion energy research. Fusion energy is the energy that powers the universe and is ultimately the energy that mankind will need to harness if we are to have any chance to live in excess of a million years.
2) High corporate taxes. This will lead to loss of jobs and thus loss of money to be spent by the population and ever increasing demands on the welfare expenditures.
3) In the end, less money. Current policies will lead to high inflation, higher taxes, lower paying jobs and fewer jobs.
4) You answer this one.
Questions.
1) What's better for the economy? Cheap and plentiful energy for all or an expensive and scare supply.
2) In the end, who pays corporate taxes? The people or the companies.
3) What is better to help companies hire workers and lower unemployment? High corporate taxes or low.
4) What stimulates the economy better? Having more or less money in your paycheck after taxes.
5) What is the worlds "ideal" CO2 concentration? 0, 100, 200, 300, 1000.
Obviously if you have at least some intelligence the answers are
1) Cheap and plentiful energy for all
2) The people, as the costs are passed on in higher prices for goods the company manufactures.
3) Low – the more a company makes, the lower the cost of goods and the higher the demand and therfore the more it sells and the more people it has to hire
4) More money in your paycheck... you can then buy more goods that generate sales taxes for states and increase employment rates as demand for goods increases.
5) The answer is not yet known. However, consider this... at 0 all plant and thus animal life ceasts to exist. At less than 200ppm plants start dieng off which is also extremely bad. Plants LOVE it at around 1000ppm. We are currently at 385ppm. Seems to me that in order to insure that we stay well above the minimum 200ppm level we should be at least at 300ppm. The last time it was over a 1000ppm we were in an ice age. Perhaps a study needs to be done to determine the optimum CO2 concentration before we start deciding at what level we want to control it at.
Bush. Yes we blame him. Bushie, Inc. eradicated any number of regulations, and perhaps abdicated their constitutional responsibility by choosing not to enforce any remaining regulations . They ran up trillions of deficit spending. They encouraged the outsourcing of technology and engineering jobs to cut costs – actually admitted in February 2003. The saved costs were most likely passed on to criminals and shareholders in the executive suite. Those of us who worked in technology and engineering lost our jobs, careers, homes, and health insurance. No doubt some have lost their families. Investors bought those foreclosed homes and flipped them for huge profits to people buying with ARM's. With their profits, our investor friends either invested with Bernie, or bought into mortgage backed derivatives. That buzzard came home to roost in September 2008. How convenient. How very fittingly convenient. Congratulations. Bushies, you did such a wonderful job. We would all be blithering idiots not to blame Bushie, Inc. and their neo-con-republican friends. They caused this mess intentionally. Ok – maybe there is a 0.05 percent chance they were really not smart enough to understand the cause and effect of their actions. Even if that is actually true, at some point they had to become aware they were in far over their heads. When that realization came all of them including Dick should have resigned. So, yes, we blame them. And I think their friends who helped get them elected have reaped their just rewards. Laugh. Laugh Out Loud! Roll On The Floor Laughing! Maybe when we get tired of laughing the great Republican Depression of 2010 will finally be over.
This is regarding Bill Mitchell with my personal opinion in the current economic situation.
I believe that Peter Morici was regarding the Bush "TARP" plan, not the Bush Tax Cut plan. It's a very well known fact in the world of Economics that, given a two period time table, if you give consumers money in this period with an expectation of tax increases to pay for the current influx; the consumer will make the wise decision to save it all, knowing that at some point they will have to pay it back. It's not like a Christmas bonus where you feel like when you pull a $2000 check out of your mailbox from the US government you're being rewarded for your years of patriotism. Consumers and media did an excellent job of telling exactly where that money is going. Especially given that people were being scared away from spending (hence the significant drop in consumer spending) by the threat of an even deeper recession. The last thing an intelligent consumer would do when a recession is unfolding is increase spending (consumers and businesses react this way, hence why giving money to banks to loosen credit when they're worried of a rush to the bank and therefore causing them to go bankrupt was also a failed attempt at saving things). Even as an independent, it's very obvious that both these policies have been ill-thought, but if we can all remember briefly the cries from the US public for a stimulus, there developed an unnecessary sense of urgency. We can attribute failed policy to none-other-than ourselves for not being patient enough to develop a plan.
Ideally the government should have looked to cities and states like California or Detroit, those really crippling in bankruptcy and seen if they would accept hundreds of billions given strict spending stipulation; therefore not letting the money slip to useless earmark spending in the state legislature. Perhaps providing Detroit money to build public hospitals and increase school spending (creating inner-city public schools, providing hope for 3-5 years off when a high school diploma will mean nothing as a 9.5% unemployment rate of educated and trained people are still trying to find a job). California is going to have to make incredible cuts to pull themselves out of their rift. Providing to the creation of high-speed rail systems, therefore creating jobs in various fields (tech for the train systems, construction for the rails, demolition for the clearing of a railway, planning, service, etc.). The rail system will provide a positive externality, in addition to jobs generated it will allow travelers to traverse less on the congested high-ways to move from city to city along the dense west coast. Florida is already planning this project, and has the plans written as well as land set aside. Right now this type of project has been discussed and spending a few weeks to set this up could have jobs being generated as early as next year.
It's also to point out, not to play devils advocate totally, but the Obama spending is done just like every other American's... on Credit. Essentially many of these jobs have begun their initial stages paid through with a promissory note for future payment, and therefore the ball is and has been rolling on many of these things. Many leading factors show us pulling into recovory mode: The Stock market is one of the strongest leading indecators, advancing ahead of the curve and helping secure consumer confidence. Unemployment will tick behind recovery, as all lagging indicators do, and so this shocking 9.5% isn't very shocking at all. It's going to lag the recovery, whereas temporary job increases act as a leading indicator. And reports of increases in temporary job development stretch from Baltimore to Detroit, providing hope that a recovery is becoming.
I certainly hope that nobody is praying for another economic recovery, it's so late in the cycle that the markets have been doing a very good job of correcting themselves (+1 for Adam Smith) if this recovery is indeed occurring and the stimulus packages have done nothing. In fact, a late addition to the stimulus package will only develop overproduction (again missing equilibrium), and will lead to a drop in productivity that will create more concern as the aggregate markets move toward equilibrium. We as a population need to realize that we're basing the benefits of stimulus on questionable grounds surrounding the pullout of the great depression and the emergency construction projects. Realistically, the second world war is, to most people (and most economists) the driving force of pulling us out of our depression. So it's very questionable that any stimulus is overly beneficial because it's rarely been the glorious thing that the US has been portraying this stimulus to be.
Tyler Parks
University of Richmond
You want true solutions, cut Government spending. Only true reductions in spending will lead to true tax cuts.
Ryan.... what? The Koolaid a little to weak for you here?
The best thing for the economy is a balanced budget. Both political parties are to blame for decades of poor fiscal policy. The best things for Americans to do is to become more independent-minded, use some common sense, and quit giving allegiances to political parties. If Americans are going to play partisan politics with each other on the scale that we have seen in Washington, then this country is doomed.
The problem that we're seeing now is strictly politics. Being an economist myself; I, as well as my collegues and friends have been predicting the collapse of the finanical sector since the mid 90s. We as well as most other economists knew that once the housing bubble popped, there would be considerable damage to the economy. It isn't that we kept this to ourselves or didn't make it vocal – we certainly did. The problem was, no one was willing to listen. Politicians didn't care to listen or fix it because it wasn't in their self interest, and the news media didn't follow it because there wasn't much of a story as the economy was performing so well before then. The problem didn't come from "Deregulation" as the media and politicians are hammering on about now. In fact, it came from over regulation. Alan Greenspan kept the interest rate artifically low to increase lending. It came from this ideaology that everyone in America should own their own home, so the government passed laws that required lenders to diversify their portfolios by giving credit to high risk individuals for every low risk individual they lent to and keeping interest rates low to increase lending. Now sure, once the housing bubble was growing at an incredible rate, we did see excessive risk taking and predatory lending by these financial institutions, but that's only because government regulation created the incentive for these banks to do so. The recession that began 12 months was from the Bush era intervention in the economy. The recession we will be experiencing for the next few months to come and possibly longer is from the Obama era intervention in the economy. With all of this high price stimulus spending on low value projects, we are not receiving the benefits from the spending, but we will surely see the costs from the excess spending from the past 8 years, as well as the next 4 in increased taxes. Looking through these posts, many people either blame Bush or Obama. In reality, they're not so different. When it comes to gross spending, government intervention in business, blocking unions (Obama made it a condtion that GM unions cannot picket until 2015), and a disregard for fixing the trade deficit with China, Obama is following in Bush's foot steps.
Don't blame it on Clinton. That president was a fellow named Nixon. It was about 1972. Certain US export corporations started trading cola to China in the 1980's for clothing. Much international trade at that time was by barter. Sugar for toothpicks. By the 1990's this trading trend with China became an avalanche. Now of course we are trading treasuries with them. The whole "conquer the world by trading with them" is perhaps as old as China itself, dating at least to the Ming dynasty. Our leaders pursue this game because they see potential profits for of "emerging markets". Politically it sometimes works, sort of. Profit from emerging markets, rarely if ever actually works out as expected.
BTW, anyone notice that even on CNN's site there seem to be more comments by conservatives (at least fiscal)? My theory is that the bulk of ordinary liberals out there are just well intentioned and idealistic harebraineds who really are not that interested in studying the issues. They just want a quick answer that is supposed to help whomever may be in need. This would explain why liberal talk radio always fails. Am I right?
There have been numerous suggestions that the administration should be spending the money faster and/or giving money more directly to the states. I disagree with all of these suggestions including those of Mr. Morici.
Remember that a huge part of the issue that got us here was money going into black holes to line the pockets of people who did nothing to help the economy. The administrations caution in ensuring the money that is being spent is going where it is intended is well warranted (granted the administration is not doing a perfect job but it is doing a lot better than its predecessor). Regarding giving money to the states, first, as suggested, it would be difficult to prevent states from finding ways to plug budget gaps instead of spending the money as intended regardless of what rules the administration tried to put in place.
As a side note, some have suggested that the federal budget SHOULD in fact be filling gaps in the state budgets. I violently disagree with this and applaud the administration for not doing so. The intention of the constitution was that the states would be independent of the federal government. They have their own taxing authority and Washington should not be encouraging them to cede more of their authority because of cowardly state legislatures.
Everybody wants to blame Bush, but our economy was great under 95% of his watch. What made it crash last September? The Housing Bust! Bush tried 18 times to warn congress that we could no longer give mortgages to people who couldn't pay for them. That whole initative was started with Clinton to get more minority, low income familes into home ownership. Do you people even remember that the last two years of Bush's presidency he was considered a lame duck b/c the Democrats had the majority in congress. His hands were tied during that time.
Also, people don't forget the terrorists that attacked our country on 9/11 and the war we got into in Iraq. Those things cost money and at the time we decided to go to war, everyone was all for it (Dems and Reps). So, study your history and don't get caught up just b/c you like our pres and don't want to disagree with him just b/c he is black (that is more racists than those stupid white supremecists). He is a politician and they all need to be checked.
Keep the gov't out of our business if you want to keep your freedom. Say no to socialized health care, cap and trade, and more stimulus packages. It may sound good that Uncle Sam is going to take care of you, but if you have a brain and know your history you will know it will only bring us more grief. Don't tread on me!
Michael- The government forced Goldman Sachs to take bail-out money as insurance. The company didn't want it and has paid it all back, before posting its profit this year. So, bad example. I agree, though, that the government should have let companies who, unlike Goldman, did make catastrophic decisions to go belly-up. Moral hazard doesn't even begin to describe it.
Bill Mitchell- You, and a lot of people, buy that line that government revenue always expands from tax cuts. So, logically, the government would have infinite money if it didn't tax at all, right? The economy tanked after Bush took office on a tax-cut platform. In his first two years of office, he-tax cuts and all- wiped out the surplus projected from Clinton's fiscally conservative management and set new records for debt.
Your argument that those deficits come from the wars might have some merit. . . except it's a president's responsibility to respond to crises. A major threat to national security is literally the best reason there is to impose emergency taxes. Even the most zealous conservative would agree that national security is a job for the government. But Bush was too much of a coward to ask the American people to pay for their troops. Ribbons on cars? Great. Opening up the wallet? No way. Would hikes have been painful? Absolutely. But it was a real opportunity to soberly ask the American people to shoulder a new burden in light of a grave threat. Instead, he put the whole thing on the credit card, setting a tone of massive borrowing irresponsibility that has finally come home to roost.
This economist knows what he's talking about: give people more money, via tax cuts, and they won't spend it. Why would they? I know if I got a big rebate check it would go straight to savings. Only fools will go out and buy a car in the current climate. Instead of giving people money, give them work. Work on bridges in danger of collapse across the country, and schools that haven't been up to code since 1950. And you know what Bill, if people have work, at the end of the day, they'll get paid and have money too.
Absarokee,
You would be correct if the economy were in an inflationary cycle. Since the economy is deflationary, there is little indication that printing money to provide stimulus would actually result in inflation in the near term. When the economy starts ticking again, it will be important to limit spending and to repay debt, but inflation is not a likely outcome until the economy starts moving again.
Obama is all sizzle no steak... doesn't have a clue what he is doing and relying on Clintons buddies to tell him. You can blame Congress for our ills both current and past.
Regular folk can't run too price prohibitive, average american will never be represented.
America needs to start a grass roots campaign for term limits.... get those idiots out of Washington.
Nick – your math doesn't work 430 million times a million is not 430 million – my calculator couldn't even count that high.... perhaps we need to spend some stimulus money in your education district.
Nick, that would be 430 Americans not 430 million receiving 1 million a piece.
You know what is funny. The number of people who post on here and say that the current economy is all on Obama now, and we have to stop blaming Bush... Then 1-2 sentences later blame the Community Reinvestment Act for the crash in the economy, effectively attempting to blame the crash on Clinton. You kids are funny. Seriously. The other thing one must conclude from reading these comments is that 70% of America get their news from Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter.
The New Deal worked, and would have worked better if it wasn't so anemic. The stimulus would be working if it were bigger, had been 787 billion rather than the 400 billion it actually was, and if the money was actually in the economy now (it isn't, and it is hard to figure out how it is going to be disbursed).
Here are my suggestions: Forgive student loan debt for everyone who graduated college between 1980 and now, unless their existing debt is less than 1% of their annual salary. Reset mortgages to current housing values for all mortgages made after 2001. This will keep the banks from keeping ill gotten gains and allow them to actually value their mortgage based assets. Make all existing credit card debt 2% above the overnight rate. Cap new interest rates at 17% for credit cards. Build national level infrastructure projects including fiber-to-the-premises, big wind, big solar, high speed rail, bridge maintenance, and smart grid technology. Last but not least, reduce military spending to a maximum of 2x our next closest competitor (we currently spend roughly 500x) and invest the difference in a emerging technology investment bank and in education. The stimulus needed to be at least 2.1 trillion to plug the holes in private investment.
This guy is an "economist", he does not work the "Economist" magazine Beavis. Sheesh. I normally try to avoid CNN as their so called journalist believe that they already know what is correct on any issue before they report on it. Whatever the Democratic position is is the right one and they will avoid examination of any ideas/realities that may go against what they are already sure is right (cuz they read it on Huffington Post.com!). It all fluff and BS. These folks see their job as to better the world by reporting stories in a way that will sway the ignorant masses to the "correct" view. All the dems' identity politics and big government plans to save everyone only creates all kinds of ridiculous unintended consequences and results in more giant messes for people and businesses to try to navigate through. Take this economist here... "I'm no Republican, but..." big surprise there. BTW, I think this guy was talking about the stupid stimulus checks that Bush sent out. Of course people paid down their credit cards with that $... It was a one time payment! But this clown points to this as uncontroverted proof that "stimulus tax cuts" don't work?! That is a fraud. The only way to move the economy is to let people and businesses keep more of their income. Move out of the way so the people can create oppurtunity! This is how our nation became great. Not by the government stealing from some and giving to others. The only think shovel ready is the stuff coming out of the mouths of Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Let's take back our country and let opportunity happen for everyone in 2010!!!!!!!
Pretty odd math if you ask me. The economy has only recovered 15% and we have spent 8% of the stimulus... Uh oh, looks like its working.
Its time some of you Republicans learned a bit of math. BUSH caused this disaster, and Obama is fixing it. It takes more that 6 months to fix five years of out-of-control spending! Attaching labels like "liberal" to any bit of math you don't understand is just juvenile. Calling things "socialist" when they are in fact helping the people that power this economy proves you don't understand how an economy works, and neither does Mr. Bowtie here.
wasn't it mostly liberal ideas such as equality in lending, i.e. giving loans to people who shouldnt have gotten them "because its the fair thing to do", that got us into this mess????? So when you harp on the last 8 years you should probably think about what caused the problem, bad mortgages, people with more debt than they could handle, and find out who was in charge of perpetuating those problems...barney frank, nancy pelosi, etc etc. Bush's is responsible for not doing more to stop those liberal ideas of free money for all, but if he would have tried the liberals would have crucified him for not caring about the poor or middle class because he didnt support easy credit, loans and mortgages for them.
Things will not seriously get better until businesses in the United States behave as if they have a stake in the US economy. If you want the US economy to get better, buy products and services which are made in the USA. If you sell services in the US, provision them in the USA. If you sell commercial goods in the US, make them here. If you are a business, and you cannot help with this, the current mess is a direct result of existing business practices. If you live in the US and do not contribute to the US economy your complaining privileges are revoked.
Nick, with that kind of math you probably voted for Obama.
$430,000,000 X $1,000,000 = $430 TRILLION!!!!!!!!
These economists got us here in the first place, why should we listen to these bozo's? Economics itself is a pseudo-science not based on anything other than basic game theory. We would be better off flipping a coin than listening to economists.
I am appalled by this collection of rubbish. If ever there was a collection of opinions that clearly demonstrates the shocking lack of general knowledge and education of the U.S. population, this is it. It seems like almost NONE of you even begin to understand our money and banking system, most of you are responding with some kind of nonsensical slogan you read (with difficulty) on some beatup pickup truck's bumper sticker, and – oh, yeah – very few of you can spell, or construct a grammatically correct sentence. Get over yourselves.
No economist has mentioned what will happen when the 6.6 million (and counting) laidoff run out of unemployment benefits and start getting all their homes foreclosed on, or evicted from their rental. That will start a whole new cycle of falling property values, homelessness, crime, failing banks, more layoffs and more local, state and Federal tax revenue plunges. Where California is now the rest of the lower 48 are headed for.
I hope Obama is realizing, it's a lot easier being a professor who knows all the answers than a president who knows none of them.
In many instances the pen is mightier than the sword and what goes around often comes around. The demise of the North Carolina native Indians was in a large part due to American treaties and trade agreements as witnessed by the Trail of Tears. Today America has numerous trade agreements, which are not in the best interest of our fine nation. These complex agreements involve the World Trade Organization (WTO) and bad decisions are not easy to correct. The free trade playing field is not fair. The words “protectionism” and “tariffs” should not be considered un-American. Tariffs were Americas number one source of federal revenue from the 1790’s until WWI when income taxes took the lead. We know about income taxes. America needs a manufacturing base covering all market sectors including textiles and furniture. Without hands on manufacturing it is impossible to maintain research and development, technological improvements and innovation, and the quest for knowledge in our higher education system. Our military deserves to have the best clothing, equipment and technology in the world. Thankfully, the Berry Amendment gives preference to procurement of military contracts to American manufacturers. However, it is tough for companies to live primarily off military contracts. The Berry Amendment should be expanded to include all government contracts.
Government officials have readily admitted and documented, that America is faced with an import inspection crisis. The percentage of total import containers that are inspected for potential dirty bombs is relatively small and in today’s environment this is a very serious national security issue. Additionally, America is faced with real foreign product quality issues such as lead based toys, faulty drywall, toothpaste, dog food and drugs. Identifying a problem is usually 90% of the solution. The remaining 10% of the solution should be relatively easy except when the solution involves politicians and our money. The cost for adequate import inspections and on site product quality inspections in foreign countries, by the FDA or other groups should not fall on U.S. taxpayers. American manufacturers did not create or contribute to this national crisis.
When John Maynard Keynes, the father of macroeconomics, was asked if he knew of anything as bad as the Great Depression he stated “it was called the Dark Ages, and it lasted four hundred years”. When economists today state that our children and grandchildren will most likely experience a lower standard of living, this is a real concern.
Great nations rise, experience golden years and then fall. The Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires all have their place in history. The great empires usually do not fall by military force, but rather their fall is often due to cultural changes prompting a decline in culture, a lack of great leadership, vision, role models, work ethic, motivation along with increased political corruption and a weakened tax base. America is facing all these issues and without a manufacturing base America will not survive as a great nation.
"All you gotta do is give everybody the money...it's so easy! But Obama is incapable of it because he wants all kinds of buraucracy like monitoring that indeed mayors and governors are spending it on what is necessary instead of shoring up budget shortfalls...all you gotta do is tell 'em to spend it on this and that...and they'll just do it."
Seriously?!? is this guy really an economist? Oh that's right "ex-economist". At the same time though, he's right. I mean most economist believe wages, for example, are sticky, but all the sudden stimulus money has all kinds of lubrication that it would "just be spent right"? Most economist believe, based on evidence (from FDR to Ronald Reagan) government spending does indeed work so long as it's "targeted, timely and temporary". And there is no proof anywhere in the world that tax cuts help get economies out of a recession, that's just a scheme to help rich folks save more during economic hard times. Targeting is hard because "the target" it's moving. Timely? Well if the Republicans had their way it would be very late. And temporary? Well, if the Democrats had their way it would be permanent. Most economist agree the stimulus package amount simply isn't enough to make a huge impact. It's like Dr. Evil asking for a million dollars ransom money and everyone in the room just laughed at the small amount of money he was asking for versus the impact he was going to create. There's no way a typical American can understand that what we're really talking about in terms of "signifant dent" in the recession is in the trillions of dollars-and accepting the fact that millions will have to be wasted as well. What Americans are asking for is to save the foundation but not waste any concrete, rebar and labor to do so...good luck. For most Americans spending thousands is plenty and it better come with a gold plate...then again these are the same Americans who spend thousands when they only make hundreds....that makes no cents.
I like Obama, he is the man for the job. However, the problem with the stimulus package is not the package but how our state and local governments are using the money. I see states using the money on their pet projects that requires no new jobs, no new positions on contracted out work to companies that are already fully staffed. Secondly, I see the same problem when the money finally reaches the local governments along with less cash and hardly any money to hire new people and really get something of significance done. It would have been better if the Obama administration had required that each state give a reasonable estimate on the number of new jobs (unemployed people taken of the unemployed payroll as a result of said project, venture or development) will be created. Therefore, the Obama government could have held each state accountable for those proposal and grant them more money only if those goals are 85 to 90% met, and nothing less. Just like we are holding the fire to GM and Chrysler we should be holding the fire to the States and local governments, quarterly, bi-yearly and annually! Look how fast GM is coming out of bankruptcy!!!!!!!
get the big cars off the road.....BS...not everyone lives in a freakin cul-de-sac and some of us actually need 4wd vehicles
windmills and solar will help....
you wanna stimulate the economy? put more disposable income in the hands of the consumers...and exercise one freaking ounce of fiduciary responsibilty....
really it's a useless cause...the gvm't is so far in debt it's nearly unmanagable
Wow Jon, thanks for all those 'facts'. I heard the same 'facts' on Hannity the other day so your parrotting skills are top notch.
But the 'fact' about the republican party and the defecit is that they doubled it with Cheney and bushy's help. If we're heading to debtors prison, it's your icons that got us here. The ultimate republican icon, Reagon was the lynchpin. After setting policy that would ultimately doom California to bankruptcy, the uber intelligent voting public puts the B movie actor in the whitehouse so he could hand the keys of the country over to big business and the rest is history.
Fact is, most republican career politicians don't spend a minute even thinking about the defecity. They are far, far too short term thinking and power hungry. They spend most of their time shouting abortion and gun control to feed the hysteria of their double digit IQ constituents, so they can do what they want to grow their power base and enforce their world domination views.
Ok, all you Einstein's out there. There are a lot of great opinions here, but how about some tangible solutions. If the feds just sat back with there hands crossed behind their heads we'd be complaining they're not doing enough. It's only been a few months since this bailout began. It took a decade to get ourselves into this mess in the first place.
It was frivolous spending and greed that got us into this mess. The bailout will provide us (middle class) some much needed breathing room to get our financial lives in order, meanwhile allowing us to learn from our mistakes for the future.
It is amazing to me to read all these entries and come to realize that the average American does not understand how our currency works, how bonds work and the meaning that whatever we print at the Treasury is because someone or some country invested in us.
To think that things will get better with the stupidity coming out of the White House is like believing that our economy is nothing more than a large scale Monopoly game.
Dollar devalues means that in order to sell bonds the Treasury has to increase the interest it pays in order to make it attarctive to the world's investors; and bonds, as most of us should know, are tied in turn to the interest rates we pay for goods in our Country. The more we pay in Bonds returns the higher everything is going to cost us. Wake up folks and get educated.
Ryan – you're hilarious calling MSNBC a news network. I bet you think Matthews, Schultz, Maddow and Olbermann aren't biased. To criticize Fox as being biased and identifying MSNBC as fair is twisted and monkey-brained and most normal folks know it.
Hold on Here! The fact is the US Government is the worst run business in the world. The Economic Package doesn't save the manufacturing jobs fleeing the country. The US will NEVER prosper as a service type industry. There are many many Millions from Obama that the Big Banks Blew and No One Cares! Maybe because they hold the Congressional Pension Investments. Geez we "regular american workers" are a bunch of saps. The Gov takes our money, sells our jobs to low cost countries, destroys our kids future, borrows from the Fed Reserve (Private Bank), Mismanages the entire thing, Taxes the people and businesses into the dirt, and we still stand behind these decisions? WHY? Oh yeah, like the guy who max'd his home equity loans and credit cards, borrowed from family, friends, and neighbors, spent until nothing was available: He was only rying to fix his personal economic crisis. LOL
First off Tyrone is an idiot.
There are no more excuses.
No more on-the-job training that Biden talked about in the campaign trail.
Obama the brilliant orator makes statements like "unemployment will get worse before it get's better", now that's profound. Does he just make this stuff up or does he reach out to his brilliant support staff to conjour up the well crafted lines.
Obama has had the reins for 6 months now and they're already talking about another stimulus since the first one isn't working. If the first one was working then why do we need another one?
The dumbacrats have had control in Washington for 2 years now and guess what many won't be there for long because all the incumbents will be voted out in 2010.
We have a saying at a private club - Your opinion is worth a thousand voices at a meeting, but worth nothing at the bar.
Stop complaining and start doing something.
Tax breaks don't work. They will be detrimental. But every politician who says that will be tossed.
It is hard to believe this guy, he says "replace the Tahoes with Traverses – very big car but it gets twice the gas mileage". Not quite, TAHOE 14 City, 20 Hwy, Traverse 16 City, 23 Hwy. Hardly twice the gas mileage. How many of his other stats are correct?
I'm am so tired of hearing both republican and democrat leaders saying how we the common people aren't intelligent enough to know what to do with the money. Yes, Bush gave us a couple hundred dollars and we may have paid credit cards and car payments with it, which in most people's mind would be a good idea but we are told no this is not what you should do. Don't pay on your debts, spend it on something you don't really need.
Please use some of this intelligence you are talking about and give us the thousands or millions or trillions you are giving to these great minds that continue to ask for more because they spend it on things like bonuses and corporate jets when we the common people just want to keep or house and car.
If China has a 25% tariff on American imports, we must reciprocate now!
Globalization helps Big Capital; not people
Ammad - did you somehow miss all the suggestions in there?
This guy hits the nail on the head when he says that the U.S. economy has a structural problem. Manufacturing is the foundation of any strong economy, and the industrial revolution is the only reason we're not still a nation of farmers. Clinton started this mess back in the 90's when he signed our economic future away via his trade agreement with China. We can't spend our way out of it now. It's time to reinstate the tariffs on imports from China that Slick Willy negated, and stop letting the Chinese government manipulate our currency and economy. Americans need to toughen up and work harder to compete in a global economy. Obama may (or may not) mean well, but he's so far left of center, he's just making the bad situation that Bush/Cheney era policies created even worse. Two wrongs never make a right.
When Big Government gets its hands on money (money we don't have yet), that money gets spent on – guess what? More Big Government. Our "leaders" are intensely more interested in keeping themselves in power and personal wealth than they are in fixing the problems that beset the nation as a whole. This lesson is not new, it's something we have known for hundreds of years in this great country and thousands of years worldwide. But the voters keep on asking for more and more of the same by voting the same corrupt, self serving spendthrifts back into office repeatedly. We do it to ourselves.
Personally, I’m willing to give Obama’s stimulus package a chance. After 8 years of messing up, ruining our economy, our reputation, our standing in the world thanks to President Darth Cheney and his puppet Mortimer W. Snerd, we can’t expect an instant turnaround. You don’t dig yourself out of a $1 TRILLION deficit in less than 6 months. It may take a full 4-year term, hopefully sooner.
Amazing how many uninformaed people post comments here. Blame Obama all you want, try and say tax cuts for the wealthy work, be afraid of spending when everyone does it.
I'm sick of the sycophantic rantings of the right. Obama's been President for 6 months. SIX MONTHS! You expect things to improve after 8 years of mismanagement that fast? I see comments on here that the tax cuts Bush passed in 2001 worked. My a** they worked. That money didn't make it to me as salaries were stagnant over those years, but the rich were plenty happy rolling in the dough as we kept enjoying deficts and paying for wars! Give me a break! You Obama haters disgust me. Let the man do his job. I bet he balances the budget by the end of his first term or a little after that.
The article mentioned that Obama couldn't find many shovel-ready projects. That is not true. Utah (a Republican stronghold) was listed as the highest ranked state with the most shovel ready projects with over $10 billion dollars worth ready to go. Utah received about $350 million to fund $10 billion worth of shovel ready projects. Why? Utah is a Republican state. What happened is that Congress played politics with the stimulus money. Democrats don't want to reward states that didn't vote for Obama and Republicans kept threatening to turn away stimulus money. The net result was an ineffective and wasted stimulus package that fell apart at the hands of partisan politics in Washington and a further-aggravated economic crisis. The best things that voters can do is to vote out all incumbents and send a clear message to Washington that partisan politics will no longer be tolerated. Democracy works best if "we the people" assert our authority over our representatives rather than the other way around.
TOM: This is not "THE" Economist. This is what 'AN' economist thinks.
Personally, I'm willing to give Obama's stimulus package a chance. After 8 years of messing up, ruining our economy, our reputation, our standing in the world thanks to President Darth Cheney and his puppet Mortimer W. Snerd, we can't expect an instant turnaround. You don't dig yourself out of a $1 deficit in less than 6 months. It may take a full 4-year term, hopefully sooner.
The stimulus was a joke. It might have worked if the greedy, fat fingered congress had not inserted such a huge mountain of pork. I think the professor was right on the money when he said that this could have worked if the projects were shovel ready like Obama had originally stated over and over. If state and local governments were given the money with a deadline to use it for infrastructure projects by the end of the year it may have had a chance. Instead billions are lost in the void of bureacratic tape and environmental protection programs. Who will save the endangered Americans when Social Security and Medicare run out of money and we can no longer pay even the interest on our multi-trillion dollar debt?
I don't know whether the stimulus plan was right or wrong. I do know, however, that the extension in unemployment benefits and the job-retraining money is helping me put food on table and will help me begin a new career after my current/previous industry collapsed.
To me, that sounds like money well-spent. And it seems to make more sense than helping some company give me a part-time, minimum wage job that, in the end, would really not get me anywhere.
Until now, I have asked for very little in return for my tax money. So I do not feel like a freeloader. I am a college-educated man who, at almust 40, is finding himself unable to continue in the path that I was on.
I never thought I would be where I am, but I am doing my best to get on with things. I am grateful for having a little bit of help while I try to lean a new way to make a living.
This guy is saying that the stimulus is a good idea but that it isn't being done right.
WRONG!
Increasing government spending and increasing the national debt by a trillion dollars is a BAD idea.
Where did this guy get his economics degree from?
Basic rules of economics:
1. You can't spend yourself into prosperity.
2. You can't tax yourself into prosperity.
3. Spending borrowed money only gives the illusion of prosperity for a brief period of time until that borrowed money has to be paid back.
4. Government produces nothing – it lives off of the productive sector of society.
5. Government will never be as efficient as the free marketplace.
6. The government can not run an economy – Communist Russia already tried that.
Welcome to socialism....
Enjoy the next four years of your hope and change. Might want to call your parents and ask them if you can stay with them once you lose your job and house.
I think that it would be a good indication of your capacity to understand such a massive economic structure and the implications of the changes you all are suggesting if you would take better care that your responses were spelled and punctuated correctly. My point is this: the people in government now are the one's responsible. The decisions they make are seldom understood, rarely praised in victory and always blamed in failure. Everyone has an opinion and that's fine, but I think we would all be a little better off if we stopped talking about what we think we know and start admitting what we don't. My two cents is let's wait and see. I know we all thought everything would be fixed during the commercial break, but we just may be in this for a couple of seasons.
Nick,
you are an idiot... 430 people could become millionaires or we could spend 430 trillion to get everyone a million dollars. think before you speak. Simple facts, all politicians are corrupt and stink. Bush was a terrible president. Obama is worse. the democrats have been in control of the majority of power in washington for some time and alot of this mess falls on their shoulders. When you have obama, biden, pelosi, frank and all these other pure idiots in charge, what do you expect. Remember, 62% of america thinks this guy is the best thing since sliced bread. The rest of us are preparing for when things fall apart. Don' t come knock on my door at that time for help, for you will be one of those that falls into the category of against us.
I find it hilarious that the same republicans that argue that the liberal comments don't have any facts, themselves don't use any facts. notamused saying that "one study showed...". Oh yeah, post a link to the study. Who did it, I'm 100% sure it was a conservative think tank. And actually there is no evidence that bush's tax cuts worked, just as there is no evidence they didn't work. Why don't you try to be objective for once?
I am so sick and tired of people bad mouthing Obama. He has done more for this country in 6 months then the other idiot did in 8 years. Rome wasnt built in a day. And our economy wont be fixed in a day either. Give the man a break!!!!!!
Just remember if anything goes wrong, it's all Bush's fault.
cough cough...
Another administration using sickeningly large amounts of public funds to help stimulate the economy( even in a very inefficent manner, based on this article), letting the bill go to the national debt and let some other poor slobs foot the bill 15+ years from now, as long as it helps our politicial careers. When is America going to wake up!!
Stimulus! How about stimulating my economic structure. I am soooo tired of supporting all the peole on welfare! ! Get real, this President is going to take even more money from us working class to support anything he wants. I can't wait until the next election! If we make it that long!
never listen to a d-bag in a bow-tie.
I don't know why the media is so obsessed with fear mongering and constantly asking if Obama will fail. It has litereally been only a few months since the stimulus passed. I agree that there was not enough money for infrastructure but that is because of the CUTS the GOP senators forced to Obama's proposal. Obama passed the biggest stimulus possible. The reason it is a bit slow in implementation is that if there is ANY waste the right wing will be screaming and demonizing Obama yet again. If it were up to them we'd be in a great depression right now, with failed car makers, failed banks, even more broke states and no stimulus.
Let's wait a couple of years to see the effects of the implemented stimulus and the more accessible and affordable health system before judging Obama. The easiest thing to do is constantly complain, but I didn't hear all this whining while Bush was indebting us to China and wrecking the economy. I also don't hear too many new solutions. The reason China can put up 25% tariffs on Buicks is that we owe them a Trillion dollars. Implementing cap-and-trade could swing the balance back to US's favour if the Chinese refuse to comply and we put in green taxes on their exports. It would also make shipping products from China more expensive, encouraging domestic production.
Someone is probably accurate to a degree on a point or two, but who?
I'm an independent who voted for Obama during the election. I voted mainly because I felt (and still feel) he is a dynamic and refreshing change from the usual politicians. However, his inexperience is now showing, I guess. He does not seem to understand the after-effects of such huge spending, especially with money we don't have (borrowed money).
Also, he seems to favor only companies that supported him heavily during the election in one way or another. His support for GE/NBC news is well known. He also keeps raising the taxes of the upper middle class, but ignores the fact that companies like Goldman Sachs (another company whose folks supported Obama) have paid ZERO dollars in Federal taxes last year. That is strange.
I hope President Obama changes his policies and moves away from far left communist/socialist tendencies, and I definitely hope he does not approve the "Second Stimulus" that Congress wants!
Dear Bill Mitchell:
The economists – democrat and republican knew we already had a deficit – the trade deficit – the Clinton surplus of 236 billion wasn't covering the 450 billion trade deficit. The GOP congress went out of their way to point that out to the Clinton administration. In fact, they authorized a bi-partisan commission to investigate what risk the huge trade deficit posed to the US dollar and the american economy.
The commission released its findings Oct 15, 2000. It told both the Gore and Bush camp that one of two things needed to be done: either increase savings or increase taxes to cover the gap. Bush did nothing to increase savings, cut taxes which eliminated those awful Clinton surpluses whichdropped the savings rate that Clinton had spent 8 years raising. Why?
Savings rates come from three sectors: the business community, the government, and the private citizen. During the Bush years private savings remained flat, the business community remained the same, and the savings that came from the government went from plus to minus.
Now the problem Bill is that to maintain a high level income the american economy needs to re-invent itself every 10 – 15 years without savings to re-invest and re-invent the products of tomorrow the economy stagnated and capitalists naturally moved the commodities into lower labor cost areas of the globe – primarily China and India.
Personally I don't agree with this commentary, nor Mr. Obama.
The stimulus package, was a bad idea to begin with. We learned from both Clinton, and Bush, that it does not work. Right now people are so scared that they are not spending money. The US people in whole seem to have lost faith in their goverment, despite what people are saying. If this weren' t the case, then we would see more spending.
It scares me the debt that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. While I believe foreign trade is a good thing, to an extent, ultimately it is my opinion, the shape we are in, is to be blamed on all of the American interest that has been shipped over seas. It seems that our downfall started, many American owned business went overseas. If we want to want to really improve our country, we would impose higher taxes on American companies that have moved overseas, decrease some of the taxes on the people, and stop falling further in debt. Ultimately, either the companies will move jobs back here, or they will fail, giving more opportunity for new American businesses to take shape. But this will never happen because too many polictians and corporate big wigs have their hands in this, and are profiting hugely.
Ok, so, WHO is this guy? I guess I should pay attention because he's got a bow tie. He looks important. And if he's just up Rhode Island Ave from DC, why doesn't he come down and help out instead of raking muck. Oh yeah, that might be a public service that doesn't pay as well as being a freelance contrarian.
The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.5% last month. There’s debate on whether the stimulus is working and if it’s working quickly enough. The White House says we are on target. But a lot of people are asking when are we going to see the effects? You, though, say it’s doomed to fail. Why?
We need to tax the Chinese imports just like they tax our exports. Then, maybe some of the manufacturing jobs would come back to the USA. There are a lot of unemployed people whom I am sure would love to have one of these factory jobs.
Thank God I still I my Job and Family life before during Bush Sr. and then Clinton, and Then Bush Jr. And Praise God I still have it with Obama. It's not earthly economics that I live on it's Gods econmics. Give 1st back to Him and watch your Bank Account.
The "Spendulus" was meant to stop the free falling recession, create jobs, get people back to work, put us on a road to recovery...
When that didn't work, the language was changed to say "create or SAVE" X number of jobs...Obie is chortling about how his legislation is saving teachers, police officers and firefighters from losing their jobs, so many that we can't even put an exact number on it (I am stunned)...Really?? I have a large group of recently unemployed teachers, police officers and firefighters in my city that can't wait for the next bit of rhetoric to come down the pipe..
I agree with Don Beal, every economist will have a different opinion...Make YOUR voices heard in 2010...You're stuck with Obie until 2012...
And to all those Obama voters that are now disillusioned, PAY ATTENTION NEXT TIME..!!! Don't just go with the flow..
I don't have to say anything, Brian said it all for me. Thank you Brian!
"The comments in this segment are funny, and proof that we don’t stand together as a nation. Ultimately if we all want to fix what is broken we will all stand together to realized once and for all the real problem with America and it’s economy. We don’t make anything in this country anymore. Wal-Mart and other super chains like them have forced companies to get goods from overseas. Yes, shopping at Wal-mart saves money, but not jobs, or salaries for Americans. We play the international trade game by a gimped double standard. We allow every product to come here for nothing, but pay massive tariffs to sell goods made in this country elsewhere. It’s time to close up the American shop and fix ourselves from the inside and stop worrying about the wrongs of the rest of the world. It is after all how America became the power it was in the first place. Doesn’t anyone remember Teddy Roosevelt?"
United we stand, divided we fall. Stop criticizing and start realizing Americans have to look after Americans.
The problem is the whole system is flawed. Consumerism (capitalism) is not a sustainable method for any economy. It will fail because we live in a finite system i.e. the earth is only so big, it will support only so many beings. If somehow the earth were infinite in resources and could self clean all the horrible pollution human activity dumps into that system, well that would work. But it is simply not the case, we must realize we need a complete paradigm shift in the world. Governments cannot solve any of the current problems we have today, politicians can only make laws and appropriate money. This has never solved any problem humanity has every faced. It takes skilled workers and technicians. and the will of concerned individual leaders. Men of science and technology are the only ones capable to make the changes that are required to build a sustainable society. The world is not ready for such change and soon we will be faced with the collapse of the world animal populations and with global warming destroying are ability to grow food crops, we will see a massive collapse of the ecosystem and a population of humans decimated by war and famine. Maybe if there is enough people left hundreds of years from now, earth will heal itself and a new culture, a sustainable culture will emerge and life will go on for the humans, however, nothing is for sure.
I do not agree with all the points in this article. First, I do believe that the money is being spent on long-term investments, so we are not going to see a sudden big bang of activity. Second, giving people the money does not ensure that there is stimulus here in the US. For example, if you gave someone 1000 bucks of stimulus money, they might decide to buy a TV that is made in China. So the stimulus has to be global in nature and not just here in the US. China has to invest in their own backyard and allow the US companies to help. They must remove their unfair and illegal trade practices or else face taxes on their imports. That might mean that we pay more for the Wal-mart stuff that we normally buy so cheap... but it has to happen or else we are just mortgaging our future to China and it’s also not health for China either.
Lastly, we have to have an aggressive energy policy that creates jobs in the US. It has to have aggressive targets so that companies are motivated to make the investment and seek out new technologies. There is a study out last year that stated that most reachable oil will no longer be marketable in 20 years... means that we will have to go deeper... farther away to find the same supply of oil that we find today... This means prices will go up, countries will be competing for resources and the supply is not unlimited.
Am I the only one that has noticed that the people that are slamming our president with name calling and spewing GOP pea soup are the very people that can’t spell or put together a coherent argument? College must have been too liberal and they were one of the children that decided to stay behind. If you want to complain about something fine; but get educated somewhere other than FOX.
Wow! Liberals cry like little girls when anyone has criticism of their prophet Obama.
All this guy is really saying is that not enough funds were spent on infrastructure. Every single Economist and Republican said the same thing 6 months ago when Obama's people started crafting this Liberal Spending Bill.
Obama, like most Democrats, fail to grasp how this country's economy actually runs. It isn't by offering tax credits on buying new cars, this economy runs when people have jobs, homes and pay taxes on them. America's backbone is our infrastructure, which has been grossly and irresponsibly ignored by the current administration.
I understand all the Washington Liberals want to get back at Bush and his administration, but do all US citizens have to pay the price?
Most of you are either not reading this article, not understanding it or taking advantage of it to spread republican fear ideas. Both the Dems and the Repubs are out of touch, elitist, elderly fear mongers that spout of at the mouth just to get you people worked up to vote. "Can't wait until the election of 2010" ? really, because the last one went that well for the repubs?. Its not that Obama is a good guy or president, he won because he was not a republican, and after 8 years of Bush how could you blame the youth of this country for putting him in. I thought this article was accurate but harsh on Obama, becuase there were no refferences to the guy that spent us in this hole (Bush and the Neoconservs). Just to show you how far our country has fallen, especially in terms of educating our youth, the first poster (notamused) spelled capacity – compasity. I refuse to listen to churchy republicans which often tout "family" or "moral" values when not in Argentina, backed by angry uneducated people who use but can't spell the word capacity.
I refuse to continue to call this a recession, the definition of depression is "a deep recession which lasts for an extended period of time". Its almost been a year since the meltdown and the only conspiracy I see is when a repub or dem puts people on furlow, the people have to call it "cost savings days". Had this been a real national emergency, or even urgent at all, our government would not ask us to pay them to spank us (giving tax dollars to corps so they will not go under, while those same exact corps charge us higher interest rates to pay our government back OUR money we lent them)
The main point to this story, or at least the one that I had taken from the article, ARE WAYS TO END THE DEPRESSION. He had said that we need to beef up our manufactuing base. The longer our country buys cheap China slave camp trinkets, the more cash they have to buy our dollars and keep thier yuan low, the lower the yuan the more global buisness will seek out the cheapest labor force in the world, which in my opinion was the real cause of the real estate bubble and a major contributor to the mess were in. This is where Obama and his government have completly missed the mark, every country need a manufacturing base, its like the skeleton of any good economy. Without it I fear my childrens generation will need to ask China to build us tanks and Hummers should we ever need to invade Iraq again. ..... ohh he also said the other half of our recession problems have something to do with oil..... using wind and "green" tech to replace oil is alot like using a supersoaker to put out the fire in the world trade center buildings.
We as a country put a man on the moon in less than 15 years (granted we have not gone back in my lifetime (i was born in 76)) I have heard the gripes and groans about not being energy self suporting for the last 25. Brazil has done it why cant we ?... Because we are being divided by fake issues, dummed down by wordplay and spin and spending way too much time looking for the ways we are all different, instead of how we are all alike.
Any idiot knows that the money will be released and unemployment will be addressed when the 2010 campaign season begins.
Get ready cuz milk and honey will be flowing in about 11 – 13 months.
The only thing that Obama is stimulating is the US Deficit ! Trying to create jobs by increasing the size of Federal , State and Local Governments is a major LOSER !! Who do you think has to pay for all these " new" jobs ? Good guess. The American Tax Payer !! You don't have to be an " economist " to figure this out. But you do have to think for yourself instead of following blindly down the road of "CHANGE" just for the sake of something different. I hope everyone is happy with the change they wished for. Wait a few years . It will get a LOT worse !
No, it was Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi , Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the other dems that got us in this mess!! Stop hating Pres. Bush and lay some blame on Nobama!!!!!
Sigh – and these are the same economists that we put our faith in to start with, ending up where we are today ?
In my honest opinion, these comments mean less than the electrons that are hosting them.
It has only been a few months, and the instant gratification machine that has been the media and big business wants to continue finger pointing and not provide anything of a resolution.
To all of Morici's naysayers, how has he not provided a clear-cut alternative to what Obama is doing? He's saying if we want to expand jobs, we have to pay for it! We can't just put money into the government (Federal, state or local) and pray that they do the right thing, we have to direct this money toward projects that produce tangible benefits. It would be a win-win situation to have people building schools. Person is employed, dilapidated school is restored to a working condition. In this manner, we take the time to put out-of-work citizens to good use by improving our infrastructure. In normal times, these people are more valuable working in the private sector, but right now they could help society by doing public works–one of the few things FDR got right with the New Deal.
Instead, Obama decides that the Almighty Government should get the money in its all-knowing capacity and micromanage it.
Blah, Blah, Blah. The American people said No bailouts No way, but the wealthy got their bailouts, they got to keep the summer home in the Hampton’s, they got to keep their big bonuses, what did the American worker get?
A PINK SLIP!
None of these Elitists in either major party care about the American people, they are all working for the "Progressive Government" bringing about the "New World Order" and these plans have nothing to do about holding the values of the U.S Constitution, our freedom and liberty is being sucked away.
Try this... use some of that money to subsidize a temporary but meaningful payroll tax relief, pop money back into the pockets of those Americans who still have jobs (for now) and let the consumer – the real engine of our economy – pull this out of the ditch.
you want to spend $800 billion dollars and make sure it gets in peoples hands? Easy, without any government planning. Just cut the income tax by 80%.
The income tax is 1 trillion dollars a year and is only 1/3 of the federal income. The federal government will still have 2/3 of their income intact and what does it matter if they collect less income tax. They are already 11 trillion in debt, so either
we the american people spend the money, or the govt taxes us and spends the money.
Any freshman economics textbook will tell you that unemployment is the last indicator of a turn around in an economy. The only thing I see here thats doomed is this man's pride based on his tie.
Unfortunately, the way the US has ALWAYS gotten out of this kind of bind is through a major war. By war I don't mean that whole Iraq thing, I mean a REAL war. If we put $800 billion into a world war you bet your ass we'd be back up and running.
America runs on war. If you don't like it, move.
Yep, if enough Repubs drag their heels and resist, maybe they can stop the recovery. But they can't hide what they are doing, and they don't have the best interests of the country in mind. If they ever did?
To "notamused": What is a "compasity"?
To do absolutely nothing would have been Obama's worst mistake! The economy would have slided off into oblivion.
I wish you hyper hypocritical, brain-dead right-wing hatemongers would just go ahead and wear swastikas so we could identify you without having to actually engage you. Your stupidity gives me heartburn.
This economic crisis is the direct result of the voodoo economics (aka "supply side") experiment that the entrenched wealthy conducted on this nation abetted by the ignorant Christianist (not Christian...you people are not real Christians) rubes. Well done, morons. Now just shut up while those of us who have rational brains and aren't sociopaths try to fix your mess.
SHUT. UP.
Because the stimulus money is Federal money, alll construction projects have to have a NEPA analysis completed before they are considered "shovel ready". There are many State and local projects already designed, the State equivalent of NEPA has been completed, but the projects are sitting on the shelf while local agencies now have to spend months and thousands of dollars to conduct a NEPA analysis. This is insanity. The stimulus law should have exempted NEPA so long as a State equivalent of NEPA was in place and adhered to.
I consider myself middle of the road and have voted both left and right and I, too am unhappy at how long this recovery is taking but it frustrates me that every scorned republican has nothing but extremely negative thoughts to share. Must be nice to live in neverland or do you honestly believe that you can fully wrap your head around this incredibly complex problem that is our economy. Never before have we faced so many complex issues at once. This guy has not even been in office for a year and you are already dismissing him as incompetent when all of the comments I have read are ignorant and mis-informed and don't begin to address all the problems we are facing, but rather prove you don't really get it!! There is no easy fix, this will take time, so stop the ranting, give the guy some time and if you don't have something positive or constructive and informed to say, please don't share.
Re: Your stupidity....
Bush's deficits had nothing to do with deregulation. It came from spending too much on wars and not vetoing any spending bills from the Republican congress. That's the danger with one party controlling both houses and the White House.
The massive amount of consumer borrowing and spending can be blamed on the consumer. Also, Greenspan and the Fed were too slow to raise the interest rates after the economy recovered in 2002, creating hyperinflated home prices because investors were buying multiple homes causing true homeowners to pay more than they could afford for a house to live in and to have to resort to creative loans.
Lowering taxes can work. If a company's sales are flat and then taxes are lowered, other business that purchase their services will then have more money to spend, increasing company A's sales, which they will retain more of because of lower taxes, in turn leading to spending on other companies' services or hiring more staff to meet the increased demand.