Granby01033

Average Americans are split on whether the economic stimulus as a waste of money (you can't touch it, you can't see it, right?),  but the New York Times reports that economists are reaching a consensus that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was worth the effort. Without it, we'd be in worse shape.

In interviews, a broad range [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

What is it about the American underdog that makes him think what's best is what suite America's top dog? It's jobs, not the deficit, that matter most to everyday Americans. Jobs also matter to the economy, but the top dogs, the chattering classes, and other conventional thinkers who consider themselves serious say it's time to consider deficit [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

He Who Must Be Read thinks my thoughts. In this case, he says what I've felt, but haven't articulated: President Barack Obama was never inoculated from conventional wisdom. You know conventional wisdom. It's what everyone thinks they know but haven't seriously thought about to really know. Krugman thinks about conventional wisdom. He doesn't automatically reject [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

There are things the country can do to improve the employment situation. The question is whether the Obama Administration can get Congress to take action, and that's not as easy as it seems. As with the American public, you won't go broke underestimating the intelligence of the average Congress(wo)man. We're probably entering an extensive jobless recovery in which the [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

Where's John Dillinger when you need him? The mega-banks took our money, but that wasn't enough. They're giving us a second and third screwing by lobbying against reform and failing to make the loans that will get the economy going. According to He Who Must Be Read, even the mild-mannered Obama Administration is pissed.

Administration officials [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

One lesson from the Great Depression is that you should never underestimate the destructive power of bad ideas. And some of the bad ideas that helped cause the Depression have, alas, proved all too durable: in modified form, they continue to influence economic debate today.
--Paul Krugman
Theories are a great thing. They allow you to explain [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

The sensible center wants to see deficit reduction. Now. Former FED Secretary Alan Greenspan, the single individual most responsible for the implosion of the global financial sector (see Housing Bubble), thinks a second stimulus is unnecessary because

"One is only 40 percent of the first stimulus has been in place... And there is a considerable debate [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

The Boston Globe has a story saying that the Massachusetts economy will probably outpace the economy of the rest of the country.  That means less unemployment, I guess. The article is pretty vague about what a quicker recovery means. Clearly, Massachusetts is part of, and depends on, the rest of the country and its success.
I guess [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

Thanks to an an increase of state's sales tax, this August's tax revenue was only 1 percent lower than the previous August.
The successful Cash for Clunkers program accounted for some of the revenue increase. There was a thirty-six percent in tax collections on car sales.
Mark Mark Read more »

[Read more →]

I owe more money than I make a year. Most people do because we finance our homes and our cars. If I were to total up all my debts, they are about twice what I make in a year. Regardless of that debt, I tend to pay my bills and pay them on time.
Generally speaking, [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

It's been hard for people not involved in government to see the effects of federal stimulus. Most folks see things not changing, they don't see the sources for the money that pays for them. But Granby school children are benefiting from the money coming into the schools. The DHG reports:
 GRANBY - Granby teachers and administrators [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

As a customer of Polish National Credit Union, I know my bank hasn't taken government bailout money. Not so for a lot of banks reports the Financial Times:
US banks stand to collect a record $38.5bn in fees for customer overdrafts this year, with the bulk of the revenue coming from the most financially stretched consumers [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

Sometimes the private sector is the problem, and government is the solution.
You'll have to take the word of He Who Must Be Read, but the Obama Administration saved the United States from another Great Depression. The stimulus could have been stronger; the private sector could have been given more responsibility for what it did to [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

As the economy shows some signs of recovery, economists are pointing out that the President's stimulus package lessened the severity of the Great Recession. That's a small win for Obama, whose Administration exaggerated its effects, and Keynesian economics. It would have been better if the GOP in those pre-filibuster proof days had cooperated.
The NYTimes reports:

While there is a consensus that a [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

Rick Perry is running ahead in the Republican primary race in Texas. He's running against Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Given his talk about the Lone Star State seceding from the Union, it's safe to say he's got a wrap on the wingnut vote.  It's too early to say whether his posturing on the economic stimulus will [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

He Who Must Be Read says,

The really terrible numbers earlier this year had a lot to do with inventories: businesses decided they had too much stuff in warehouses, so they slashed production well below final sales. Correspondingly, the green shoots we’re seeing are to an important extent the result of the end of this de-stocking [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

Nearly six months ago, my administration took office amid the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. At the time, we were losing, on average, 700,000 jobs a month. And many feared that our financial system was on the verge of collapse.
The swift and aggressive action we took in those first few months has [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

There are two kinds of problems: immediate and slow motion. Immediate problems drop in your lap like a hot potato. You have to jump in order to deal with it. Slow motion problems are like a frog thrown in a pot of water slowly brought to a boil. The frog doesn't know he's cooked until it's [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

The next time someone tells you that government should run like business, remember business can be predatory, making money on our backs. Case in point: oil speculators. Yeah, speculation makes money for people, generally rich people, but it does so, not by adding value to the economy, but by inflating bubbles. We pay the costs [...] Read more »

[Read more →]

When negotiations for the last stimulus were taking place, there was money for building schools in one of the drafts. Maine's Senator Susan Collins, one of the three GOP crossovers to support the bill, insisted school buildings not be part of the package. Economically and practically speaking, excluding school building made no sense. Putting money into [...] Read more »

[Read more →]