On a national scale, there are three groups of spenders -- consumers, corporations, and the government, right? Consumers spent well beyond their means in the years leading up to the recession, so as a whole, they have to spend less, save more and pay off debt. Corporations have massive amounts of cash on hand but are unwilling to spend it because consumer confidence is down and unemployment is up, so demand for their products is questionable. Would you make the decision to build a new manufacturing plant in this type of environment? So both consumer and corporate spending are weak. Every dollar earned is a dollar that was spent by someone else. So we can resign ourselves to the deepest, longest recession/depression possible -- or the government can step in and be "the spender of last resort" and attempt to stimulate growth. I agree with the general concept of government spending. I don't believe the government acted effectively in response to (and lack of anticipation of) this particular economic mess.