The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Economics => Topic started by: Chris on May 12, 2009, 02:12:30 AM
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The Labor Department released its latest employment figures, prompting some fairly dire projections from economists: (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-jobless-claims-rise-more-apf-15011591.html?.v=16)
Worse-than-expected news on unemployment and home sales Thursday dampened optimism that a broad economic recovery might be near.
Many analysts don’t expect the housing slide to show signs of stabilizing until the second half of this year. They said layoffs may be at their high point, but that the jobless rate, already at a 25-year high, will keep rising until the middle of 2010.
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3148/stimulusunemploymentapr.gif)
The unemployment rate was never supposed to go over 8%. But when you compare projections to the actual unemployment results (the triangles in maroon), the actual data doesn’t seem to follow the “With Recovery Plan†curve.
In a stunning surprise, the data does follow the curve projected by the GOP and the conservative punditry, who said there would be no near-term benefit from the stimulus package. Now the economists are saying that the unemployment rate won’t start dropping until the middle of 2010. Gee, that’s when it would have started dropping if we had done nothing.
http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/787-billion-doesnt-buy-very-much-these-days/
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The way things are going with folks hunkering down, look for higher than the without curve in may and June
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So what does $787 billion actually buy?
$1.5 million in “free†stimulus money for a new wastewater treatment plant results in higher utility costs for residents of Perkins, Oklahoma.
$15 million for “shovel-ready†repairs to little-used bridges in rural Wisconsin are given priority over widely used bridges that are structurally deficient.
$3.4 million for a wildlife “eco-passage†in Florida to take animals safely under a busy roadway.
$1.15 million for installation of a new guard rail for the non-existent Optima Lake in Oklahoma
$10 million to renovate an abandoned train station that hasn’t been used in 30 years
10,000 dead people get stimulus checks, but the Social Security Administration blames a tough deadline
Town of Union, New York, encouraged to spend a $578,000 grant it did not request for a homelessness problem it claims it does not have
http://www.atr.org/sen-coburn-details-stimulus-waste-new-a3380
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Unemployment is already higher than the 'without'... so I guess it was off a bit?
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Unemployment is already higher than the 'without'... so I guess it was off a bit?
Yeah just a little.
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I would have thought that they would have invested it in a more Keynesian friendly way. Why not produce something instead of just handing out money? At the end of the day, all you are doing is making millions of people dependent on social welfare.
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I would have thought that they would have invested it in a more Keynesian friendly way. Why not produce something instead of just handing out money? At the end of the day, all you are doing is making millions of people dependent on social welfare.
....which is the crux of Keynesian economics, isn't it? The libs can keep their Keynesian thought processes. That's not a change we can afford.