The Stimulus' Slow Emergency: Good Thing the Economy's Still in Trouble!

We couldn't stop to think for a second whether we needed a gajillion dollar stimulus bill passed right the hell now!!! last year; however, its tangible effects, whatever they might be (hint: much bigger tax bills in the future), can wait. Via MSNBC:

The idea behind the government's economic stimulus package was to get money flowing through the system, boost economic activity and create jobs. But an msnbc.com review of the latest federal spending data shows that the money is flowing at a trickle…..

As of mid-June, for example, spending by the Transportation Deptartment for so-called "shovel ready" projects represented barely 2 percent of available funds. The EPA has barely touched its $4.4 billion in stimulus spending. Same for the Defense Department.

According to our calculations, roughly $53 billion or one-third of the $150 billion in fiscal stimulus money available for this year has been spent as of June 19. As a percentage of the $479 billion in total stimulus funds, that represents only 11.1 percent.

Comments

[smartass sob]

roughly $53 billion or one-third of the $150 billion in fiscal stimulus money available for this year has been spent as of June 19. As a percentage of the $479 billion in total stimulus funds, that represents only 11.1 percent.

Perhaps they are attempting to postpone any possible probable inflationary effects until after the 2010 elections.

[Misha]

You anti-government fanatics are amazing. The quality of life is so much better in the European social democracies than in your gun-toting health-care Hell. That's the real existing free Market Paradise as opposed to your propaganda version of it. Quite a little mindless cult you so-called libertarians have.

[JB]

Obama is a retarded monkey.

Though that is probably an insult to monkeys. I take dumps that are smarter than him.

[JB]

Misha, so where do you live you stupid cunt? I hope you live in one of those socialist paradises and I hope you fucking stay there.

We will soon be sending all sorts of dickless fucks to live with you. They have the choice of moving there alive right now. In the future they will be shipped as dead weight.

[Misha]

JB

Your low-life vulgarity reflects the poverty of American culture. Only your mostly oppressed national minorities have contrubuted anything to the world. Aside from their cntributions, it's just guns, teen preganacies, crearionist idiocy, and macho free market fanaticism. Shame!

[hammeredHead]

Misha, you need to stop watching Lou Dobbs and watch this instead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvvuHREm5jg

Americans are doing better then ever because they are individually responsible for their success. In Europe, your union or MP is responsible for your success.

If things are not going well for you, I suggest that you get training in auto mechanics (computer or fuel injection), Nursing, or programming. Then you will be wealthier than 90% or the Europeans.

[Misha]

JB is a typical American racist who can't abide the notion that a Black man is in any way superior to him. Obama has more intelligence in his little finger than JB's entire family has in its puny brains. Genetics plays a big role. Sorry JB. It's not really your fault.

[hammeredHead]

From the more recent posts it looks like you don't live in the US. Unless it is Switzerland, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore then I guess you are doomed to live a lower middle-class life.

[Misha]

HammeredHead,

Lou Dobbs is an American nationalist Know-nothing, much like you. Why would I watch him?

[hammeredHead]

How am I a nationalist? I have no belief that the US is better. In fact, it sucks because it is getting more like Europe.

I've been looking in to retirement in New Zealand in 5 years. I will be 46 then and I will have the money to do so because I was responsible. Until recently governement hadn't taxed us as high as it will to protect us from our irresponsibility.

Lou Dobbs sucks, at least we agree on that. I only said it because he thinks the middle class is getting screwed.

[hammeredHead]

Oh and I forgot to mention that Libertarians are not nationalist at all. Most including myself believe in open borders, are against US imperialism, and think our glory days are probably behind us.

[thew83]

typical American racist who can't abide the notion that a Black man is in any way superior to him.

Actually I'm willing to bet that most white suburbanites (a very large demographic) probably voted for Obama.

I have no doubt that Obama has some measure of intellegence, I simply object to most of what he's doing.

And we haven't had a real free market in quite some time.

[hammeredHead]

I have no doubt that Obama has some measure of intellegence

His analytic intelligence is questionable. He really doesn't seem to notice the obvious consequences of many of his policies.

He is a great speaker, but unfortunately I feel that is probably his only ability.

[Triumph]

Misha,

May I sniff your ass? You sound really cute.

[Jordan]

Misha = Lefiti. Ignore him.

[hammeredHead]

I should add, before Misha thinks that I am a racist, that Bush was also a retarded monkey.

[thew83]

He really doesn't seem to notice the obvious consequences of many of his policies.

Or doesn't care.

[mark]

Jordan, I think it's usually ==

[mark]

like, Stimulus == Spending
and Spending == Taxes and/or inflation

[Jordan]

Not in pseudocode.

[Episiarch]

Misha is so obviously trolling that it's painful. Seriously, could its lines have been any more "stereotypical Euro-socialist that drives right-wingers nuts"?

[B]

If hindsight is 20/20 then the Republicans who opposed the piece of shit stimulus bill claiming it would not stimulate the economy would be able to see a gnat on the moon. The stimulus bill is going to end up being such an albatross around the neck of Democrats that it may well cost them their majority in the House. If unemployment eclipses 10%, it will.

[B]

"JB is a typical American racist who can't abide the notion that a Black man is in any way superior to him."

And you are a pathetic piece of shit who labels anyone who disagrees with this piece of shit president a racist. I can't fucking stand Obama, he is bankrupting the country, he is so fiscally reckless he makes Bush look like Suze Orman, and his foreign policy gives aid and comfort to murderous tyrants and those seeking to subvert the constitutions of their countries. And frankly, I don't give a fuck if someone with less brains than the corn in my shit accuses me of racism because I criticize a worthless man who happens to be black.

P.S. To grasp how fucking retarded you sound, you should probably look up Janeane Garafalo on youtube and watch one of her latest rants.

[Rhywun]

Please don't feed the trolls.

[Rhywun]

PS. What on earth does the EPA spend 4.4 billion dollars on...? That actually has any impact on the economy?

[JB]

Misha, I'm not a racist, but I do hate stupid cunts like you.

Plenty of people called Bush a monkey and chimp so I have no problem calling Obama the fuck-bag, a retarded monkey.

I'm sorry that hurts your sensitive vagina. Actually I'm not sorry. I'm glad it hurts your vagina.

You sound like a europussy. I'm tired of paying my money to defend fuckwads like you. Fuck NATO, fuck Europe, and fuck you. I look forward to the day when 70 muslims rape you silly. I will cheer.

[B]

"Aside from their cntributions[sic], it's just guns, teen preganacies, crearionist idiocy, and macho free market fanaticism. Shame!"

Yeah, and you European fuckwads have contributed Nazism, socialism and communism.

But hey I would be jealous too if a nation that has only been around 233 years is more powerful, wealthy and influential than any shitty European country from which you hail. Germany has had double digit unemployment for over 2 decades, our Salvation Army could kick the asses of the French surrendocrats and England still gives tens of millions to a fucking monarchy. In short go fuck yourself, and get back to me when the French don't suck anymore.

P.S. Learn to fucking spell.

[B]

Europeans insulting the United States is like Keith Olbermann insulting Bill O'Reilly, every fucking night. We all know the motive.

[B]

And I forgot to add that the Europeans also "contributed" fascism. But hey, ideologies that provided the framework for the slaughter of millions are so much better than "macho free market fanatacism" and "teen pregnancy" (I think most would dispute the notion that teen pregnancy is a uniquely American phenomenon). And what is even worse, you fuckers still vote for communists and socialists. That is a whole new level of stupidity.

[Xeones]

Folks, Epi's right. Misha is all y'all's mom, and she just drove you to troll school in the car of PAIN.

[Mike Laursen]

I'm all for Congress passing huge, crowd-pleasing spending bills, then not actually spending the money. That would be wonderful.

[BakedPenguin]

Should we really be complaining about government not fucking up as fast as possible?

[B]

"Folks, Epi's right. Misha is all y'all's mom, and she just drove you to troll school in the car of PAIN."

Nah. I like insulting idiots and using a whole lot of profanity in the process.

[Mad Max]

'The Stimulus' Slow Emergency'

On a more serious note, which do you prefer: Slow Emergencies or Fast Emergencies?

[B]

Shame the stimulus projects aren't quite shovel ready, because we need all the shovels going we can get in order to deal with all the bullshit coming from this "president".

[B]

The most amazing thing about this article is the fact is was done by someone from MSNBC. During the debate prior to passage of the "stimulus bill", MSNBC touted the bill so much, they probably wouldn't have questioned Obama if he claimed one of the "shovel ready" projects was using leprechaun labor to build a unicorn farm in the Everglades.

[Mad Max]

B,

Begorrah, it's biased against leprechauns you are.

[smartass sob]

Misha is all y'all's mom,...

Huh, I thought "Misha" was a guy's name - Russian or something.

[Tulpa]

This puerile canard again? I don't like the stimulus, and I don't think it will work, but in theory yes, promised spending can indeed produce reactions in the economy even before the money is spent.

Imagine that we have irrefutable evidence that the world's petroleum reserves will run out in 10 years. Even if the petro countries kept pumping out petroleum at the same rate until it runs out, don't you think this knowledge would have an effect on the price of oil now, even though the current supply and demand remain the same?

[Triumph]

Xeones | June 30, 2009, 10:32pm | #
Folks, Epi's right. Misha is all y'all's mom, and she just drove you to troll school in the car of PAIN.

Not me, I brought the pain, mano-mano, sock puppet to sock puppet. Now turn that hind end around, got some sniffin' to do.

[The Angry Optimist]

B - your hyper-rightwing schtick ain't all that amusing either, brother. "Surrdercrats"? What the fuck is this, Little Green Footballs a la 2004?

[Russ R.]

"I don't like the stimulus, and I don't think it will work, but in theory yes, promised spending can indeed produce reactions in the economy even before the money is spent."

Excellent point.

It would imply that the perfect stimulus program would be announced with great fanfare and publicity, but quietly postponed, scaled back, or outright canceled after the people's collective attention span has timed out. Then the process would simply be repeated with Stimulus II.

While I'm opposed to the pork-tastic spending plan in principle, in practice, it appears to be playing out very well indeed.

In my ideal world, none of the stimulus money would ever get spent, but it would keep being dangled as bait for useless leeches and lobbyists, hopefully distracting them from the things with which they might do some serious harm.

[Russ R.]

Oh yeah. I nearly forgot.

Happy Canada Day!

Eh.

[Triumph]

This puerile canard again? I don't like the stimulus, and I don't think it will work, but in theory yes, promised spending can indeed produce reactions in the economy even before the money is spent.

Interesting correlation, the Wall Street Journal made roughly the same argument before the passage of the historical Reagan tax cuts. They believed that the idea of the tax floating out there was having an early positive effect.

In either that case, where there was still uncertainty about the final form and depth of the tax cuts, and here, where spending is going to add on top of massive capital depletion, the extent of the effect turned out to be vague, and hence, less than one would have hoped.

What? Insult Comedian is not my only trick. Now watch me chase my tail.

[Triumph]

While I'm opposed to the pork-tastic spending plan in principle, in practice, it appears to be playing out very well indeed.

Don't count your chickens, before the dog is out of the pen.

Here is Warren Buffett last week:

I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily,' 'Everything that I see about the economy is that we've had no bounce. The financial system was really where the crisis was last September and October, and that's been surmounted and that's enormously important. But in terms of the economy coming back, it takes
a while. There were a lot of excesses to be wrung out and that process is still underway and it looks to me like it will be underway for quite a while. In the [Berkshire Hathaway] annual report, I said the economy would be in a shambles this year and probably well beyond. I'm afraid that's true...

[Isaac Bartram]

I don't like the stimulus, and I don't think it will work, but in theory yes, promised spending can indeed produce reactions in the economy even before the money is spent.

Actully, I agree. The primary effect of a "stimulus package" is to give the people the feeling that someone is doing something.

It's kind of too bad they can't just promise the stimulus money but then not spend it. Under normal circumstances the recession in well into recovery before a dime is spent anyway*. And that money usually just ends up sowing the seeds for the next financial crisis.

*Or in the case of Clinton's program isn't even enacted until a year after the recovery began.

[Xeones]

Huh, I thought "Misha" was a guy's name - Russian or something.

True, it is the Russian diminutive of Mikhail, making it equivalent to "Mike." I give somewhat less than a fuck, however.

Happy Canada Day!

Canada is not a real country.

[Gilbert Martin]

"The quality of life is so much better in the European social democracies than in your gun-toting health-care Hell"

You are physically incapable of proving a single word of that to be true.

[Rich]

"The quality of life is so much better in the European social democracies than in your gun-toting health-care Hell"

And *your* mother wears Army boots!

[Mark]

Misha, have you ever been to Europe? I used to go every summer, I even have an apartment there. It has gotten so bad (especially in the last few years) that I only go now when my family needs something (they live in Europe). They usually prefer to visit me in america and see the doctors here than have me visit them there.

[daniel]

The trouble with the de-stimulus plan was that its immediate consequences were all negative.

1.The huge and unprecedented spending plans spooked people into fearing inflation when the money is actually spent.
2. The money for the spending has to come from somewhere: the plan seemed to be that it would be extracted as more taxes on employers. This discouraged employers and did not cause them to increase their payrolls. Rather it suggested that they had better batten down the hatches and start reducing payrolls.
3. There was absolutely nothing in the bill to encourage people thinking of starting up businesses. The money all seemed to be intended to go to increasing welfare, temporary government jobs, and rewarding political supporters of the democrats. To reduce unemployment in our economy it is wise to take steps to encourage employment. This bill didn't.

[justin]

Obama is very smart at getting what he wants. Either that or lucky to have such an idiot Congress(who continue to be the real problem, imho).

You can't fix the economy once the first fix is implemented and didn't work. Better to leave the jury unable to decide whether it worked while doing similarly idiotic things.

[R C Dean]

Obama is a retarded monkey.

Though that is probably an insult to monkeys. I take dumps that are smarter than him.

I have to disagree, JB. For Obama, the stimulus was only secondarily about economic improvement, which would happen, or not, without the stimulus. It was primarily about (a) creating a slush fund to pay off supporters, (b) increasing the economic role of the federal government, and (c) increasing the size of the federal government.

It is succeeding in those goals admirably. Ergo, Obama is not stupid.

[R C Dean]

I don't like the stimulus, and I don't think it will work, but in theory yes, promised spending can indeed produce reactions in the economy even before the money is spent.

True enough, I suppose, but those reactions will be short-term (only until people realize that the money to fund the reaction isn't showing up), and the backlash will be worse than no stimulus expectation at all (companies that created or held jobs depending on the stimulus will be in worse shape than they would have been otherwise).

[Brian Doherty]

Actually, the most sophisticated and non-puerile version of government money magick says that not only can mere government paper create wealth; not only can the government merely SAYING it will make a bunch of paper create wealth; but that us merely IMAGINING that the government said it will make a bunch of paper will create wealth. Keep up, guys.

[Archduke Frantz Fanon]

Misha is also sure - Michael Moore said so - that Cuba has better health care. I stand with whoever broke out the c-word, and not with those who want to bring European statist solutions to the US. Too bad our genius president is a pure-bred commie (out of a commie mom, by a commie dad) who goes around the world parroting third world radicals.

By the way did anyone see the poll where 45% of white respondents said they would be willing to pay higher taxes for Obamacare, whereas 73% of black respondents said they would be willing to pay higher taxes. Not paying taxes sure appears to alter your views on whether we need bigger government and higher taxes. The teabaggers are our only hope.

[adlibn]

Patience please. Before anything else happens, there are lots of Obama supporters who have to skim their cut of the loot.

[John D]

The stimulus is timed to start spending just in time for the 2010 election.

How says Obama doesn't plan for the future. There'll be somthing else in 2012.