When will stimulus opponents finally admit they were wrong?

[TheComebackKid]

You can't ignore math forever man. At some point we are going to run out of money. What are we going to do when the government cannot fund anymore "stimulus"? We will be forced to do what we should have done this past year and let the economy recalibrate itself, except the longer we go down this road the more painful the recalibration will be. Can't inflate the economy forever, at some point we have to acknowledge that maybe...just maybe...this country isn't as wealthy as we all thought and our standards of living are going to have to reflect that.

[John Redcorn]

Originally Posted by Octavian

Part of their argument hinges upon employment numbers, which of course tend to lag the economy 6 to 12 months. More importantly, they lay their hat on the political rhetoric of job creation. The stimulus was more about sustaining job levels and preventing disinflation from turning into crushing deflation.

I think the whole argument hinges on inflation, which lags even further back than the stimulus. Im not totally convinced that a quick fat stimulus like the one we did really has much effect positively or negatively in the short term, but I am convinced that the low interest rates and the precedent set are devastating in the long term.

[USAMMAFAN]

Originally Posted by SowChoy

Things are FAR from being fixed and I actually think it's just the beginning of our problems. This whole thing started back with Reagan and no way will be fixed by just pumping a few Trillions out.

The real scary thing with the GDP is the gap between the GDP and the national debt.

/yawn

better buy some more gold from G Gordon then.

[BYENDREY]

Originally Posted by USAMMAFAN

Its become patently obvious to me the average person is just not smart enough to understand even the basic concepts modern economics

You claim to be an expert? You really sound like a moron to me. All you're doing is parroting what you hear in the news. I got straight A's in college incluiding economics and so did a lot of the people that don't agree with this kind of policy.

Please provide details for how we offset the short term gains that this kind of policy creates with the long term problems like unpayable debt that come with it?

I think you're clueless bro. Really clueless and naive at that.

You don't have to have a lot of school to realize that the major economic problems aren't being addressed and that's why I find a post about peoples intellect to be so funny. The people buying this crap wholesale are the ones whos IQs I challenge.

[Conan Memories]

We're fine. We're all fine here now. Everything is fine thank you. How are you?

[kartaron]

Originally Posted by USAMMAFAN

Its patently clear that without the stimlus (both this governmetns and others) thing would have been much worse and that the stimulus along with other goverment actions (fed lowering interest rates, etc) we probably would have gone off a cliff.

Was it perfectly executed? Nope, but it surely made things far better then they would have been.

The story so far, in one picture - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

First that is a global stat, and tying any single or even specific group of acts as cause and effect is ludicrous. But lets examine the US economy... What exactly helped? We borrowed money (on top of borrowed money) which was spent to keep banks and companies out of default... most of which promptly defaulted anyway. We borrowed money to halt the increase in unemployment and make a quick return to the 'normal' 5% quickly. Instead we are nearly double the nominal rate and still climbing. The retail market, except for specific programs 'back to school' 'tax free' and 'cash for clunkers' (the last being the sole positive retail 3q event having anything to do with the bail outs and being primarily funded with borrowed money) is still down ytd. It isnt even as if the borrowing is contributing considerably. Taxes are down, making the possibility of reasonably paying down our tremendous debt a hollow pipe dream.

And at the end of the day, a period which should have been a painful moment for our economy to shrug off poor management and inefficient businesses has been turned into a rabid insistent investment to maintain those inefficiencies and strategies at any cost.

[Lorenz]

I was a proponent for my government (Canada) helping major institutions stick around. But it's way to early to be running around saying 'everything is fixed!!!11'.

[RukshawM4st3r]

Originally Posted by USAMMAFAN

Its patently clear that without the stimlus (both this governmetns and others) thing would have been much worse and that the stimulus along with other goverment actions (fed lowering interest rates, etc) we probably would have gone off a cliff.

Was it perfectly executed? Nope, but it surely made things far better then they would have been.

The story so far, in one picture - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

The Indian government dumped a sizeable portion of their dollar reserves today and purchased 250 metric tons of Gold from the IMF. This send gold through the rough today, $1085. They aren't convinced either...

[RukshawM4st3r]

Originally Posted by BYENDREY

You claim to be an expert? You really sound like a moron to me. All you're doing is parroting what you hear in the news. I got straight A's in college incluiding economics and so did a lot of the people that don't agree with this kind of policy.

Please provide details for how we offset the short term gains that this kind of policy creates with the long term problems like unpayable debt that come with it?

I think you're clueless bro. Really clueless and naive at that.

You don't have to have a lot of school to realize that the major economic problems aren't being addressed and that's why I find a post about peoples intellect to be so funny. The people buying this crap wholesale are the ones whos IQs I challenge.

Excellent post from a white belt. You sir have promise in the war room....

[John Redcorn]

Originally Posted by BYENDREY

I got straight A's in college incluiding economics and so did a lot of the people that don't agree with this kind of policy.

i call BS