Originally Posted by
chignutsak
The stimulus was a) misdirected (not weighted enough towards job growth), and b) too small by about 400-500 million.
You seriously advocate that no stimulus was necessary? Economists both left and right would disagree, one year on. Mind you, I felt that both TARP and the stimulus were utterly repulsive, but unfortunately necessary.
Thanks for replying--I thought this thread had died a quick death.
There is so much ground to cover here and I don't want this reply to be diffuse, so I will will keep this tight. The stimulus, as a centrally directed redistribution of capital, was
inherently inefficient and futile. It didn't work, couldn't work, and won't work if done again.
There are lots of things the government could have done to help--all of which involve reducing the federal presence in the people's economic lives.
WW