As we know, most of the stimulus spending does not take place until next year and beyond, so the short-run gains are puny. On the other hand, the big increase in the projected deficit creates the expectation of higher interest rates, which raises interest rates now. These higher interest rates serve to weaken the economy.
According to this standard analysis, the stimulus is going to hurt GDP now, when we could use the most help. Much of the spending will kick in a year or more from now, with multiplier effects following afterward, when the economy will need little, if any, stimulus.
This is the flaw with using spending rather than tax cuts as a stimulus. The lags are longer when you use spending.
Of course, if the real goal is to promote government at the expense of civil society and to create a one-party state in which business success is based on political favoritism, then the stimulus is working exactly as intended.
Of course, if the real goal is to promote government at the
expense of civil society and to create a one-party state in which
business success is based on political favoritism, then the
stimulus is working exactly as intended.
QFMFT, yo.
I have said for quite some time that the Obama administration can
be explained and predicted very easily: the expansion of the power
of the national government, the centralization of control, and the
entrenchment of the party.
Thus, for example, marijuana will not be legalized because doing so
does not contribute to those goals. Bush's national security
apparatus will not be dismembered, because doing so does not
contribute to those goals. Etc. ad nauseum ad infinitum, amen.
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