The Stimulus Is A Failure

[KrazyHorse]

Your time is basically worthless, so no loss there.

[Kidlicious]

Your time is basically worthless, so no loss there.

Everyone who knows anything about business knows that you don't spend capital when there isn't any demand anticipated.

[KrazyHorse]

I'm sure that made sense to you.

[Kidlicious]

And I take it that it didn't make any sense to you.

[Hauldren Collider]

Yep.

[Kidlicious]

I already figured as much with you.

[giblets]

Everyone who knows anything about business knows that you don't spend capital when there isn't any demand anticipated.

And I take it that it didn't make any sense to you.

I take it you're asserting that Krazyhorse found your comment nonsensical because you are more intelligent than him and make comments that are beyond his comprehension. However that is contrary to my experience. What evidence do you have to support your claim of superior intelligence?

[Al B. Sure!]

sigh

[Straybow]

[Q=Ogie Oglethorpe;5825436]Good question(s). Regarding the permanent restructuring issue. The problem is the current direction calcifies the structural changes by embedding them into beuaracratic governmental entities. The mechanism to allow for necessary change to revitalize the underlying structure is via private sector growth.

As for why the directions of full steam ahead off the cliff, your guess is as good as mine. Could be that they understand deep down it is a failure and that the possible cynical reasons you give above are the drivers. The scarier (and one that I think more likely) proposition though is that Obama and his admin are an idealogically based organization and unwilling to be swayed by reality or facts. Ideologically blinkered memes have existed as long as people have held views. (If I had a dime for every "the reason why communism/capitalism/socialism (Favorite ism here) always fails is that it hasn't been truly been implemented thoroughly" arguement)

I doubt Biden is savvy enough to understand whether continuation and extension of the approach would be successful one way or the other. I think he is merely attempting to temper the expectations as he was put nominally in charge of the success of the stimulus package. ('nuff said on the competency of the stimulus program). In attempting to temper the expectations he instead delivered a typical Bidenism.[/Q]
Just read Saul Alinsky, Obama's topic as guest lecturer at UofC. Yes, he really does believe the American economy has to be destroyed in order to make the middle class desperate enough to allow the crackpot solutions he offers.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I'm not there yet. I still prefer to live in the land of Obama is incompetent and ideologically blinkered rather a willing architect/conspirator in a Cloward-pliven scheme. Call me an optimist.

[Kidlicious]

I take it you're asserting that Krazyhorse found your comment nonsensical because you are more intelligent than him and make comments that are beyond his comprehension. However that is contrary to my experience. What evidence do you have to support your claim of superior intelligence?

Stupidest post ever.

[giblets]

Stupidest post ever.

Damn, why haven't I accepted your unsupported, unsubstantiated proclamations as gospel?

[Drake Tungsten]

On page 85 of his excellent quick-history, The Promise, Jon Alter discusses Obama's 2009 stimulus bill:

The biggest frustration involved infrastructure. Obama said later that he learned that "one of the biggest lies in government is the idea of 'shovel-ready' projects." It turned out that only about $20 billion to $40 billion in construction contracts were truly ready to go. The rest were tied up in the endless contracting delays and bureaucratic hassles associated with building anything in America. [E.A.]

a) Good that Obama is still learning, but the realization that the expensive projects he repeatedly assured Americans were "shovel-ready" actually weren't comes a little late, no? The economy needed stimulating 18 months ago. How many unemployed Americans could have had jobs for the last year and a half if Obama had realized the House Dems' "shovel-ready" pitch was a crock and pursued other, quicker forms of stimulus--like an instant payroll tax cut?

b) Did Obama really not know this back in January, 2009? I mean, Alter's book pretty convincincly demonstrates that the President is a very smart man. But a smart man would have to have had virtually no contact, direct or vicarious, with government not to realize state and federal construction projects are bound up with time-consuming rules (like the Davis-Bacon Act's "prevailing wage" requirements) that undermine their Keynesian utility. ... He could have asked Alter, for example.

http://kaus.sitebuilder.completecampaigns.com/sbcc/blog_permalink.php?seq=1&id=728

[giblets]

Did the Stimulus Stimulate? Real Time Estimates of the Effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Abstract:

We use state and county level variation to examine the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on employment. A cross state analysis suggests that one additional job was created by each $170,000 in stimulus spending. Time series analysis at the state level suggests a smaller response with a per job cost of about $400,000. These results imply Keynesian multipliers between 0.5 and 1.0, somewhat lower than those assumed by the administration. However, the overall results mask considerable variation for different types of spending. Grants to states for education do not appear to have created any additional jobs. Support programs for low income households and infrastructure spending are found to be highly expansionary. Estimates excluding education spending suggest fiscal policy multipliers of about 2.0 with per job cost of under $100,000.

[Asher]

Grants for education certainly created jobs north of the border. My company got tens of millions of dollars out of it.