Economist: Obama's stimulus doomed to fail

this is junk. well even if what this liberal appologist has to say was 1/4 true he is trying to polish a turd. He is just trying to set in motion, a notion that taking money out of the hands of the public and into the money laundering govermental system in any compasity is a smart thing to do. There was a study done about 10 years ago that for every dollar spent on wellfare, only %25 actually made it to the hands of welfare receipients. Meaning 75% of your tax dolalrs where lost via red tape, corruption and mismanagement. Government run spending programs are doomed to fail because the impact of government spending is not a one to one relationship like private transactions. When I buy a hamburger I do not pay someone to figure out what I think I want to eat who then tells the cashier what they think I am wanting.

that's crazy!! the money hasn't been spent! duh! only 7% has. it was ment for it to gradually be released. and even if he did nothing at all. it would be even worse. how quickly we forgot it was that idiot president that came before him that got us in this mess in the first place!

I think it was Harry Truman who said, "You can lay all the economists in the world end to end, and they would still point in different directions," or words to that effect.

I would suggest Mr. Peter Morici being such a great professor should provide suggestions to Mr Obama than critisizing it. The most important thing in the world to raise finger on someone and critisize and the most difficult is to take responsibility and make positive suggestions. If atleast can't provide suggestion better keep quite than criticizing. I also expect media to stop expoliting negatives it does not do any good rather make joint efforts together to make things work.

The Economist backed George W Bush in the 2000 election. The Economist failed to expose all the financial wheelings and dealings that helped bring on the recession, until it was too late. We really don't have to care what the Economist thinks.

$100 Billion on shovel ready construction projects sounds like a lot to me; why is this guy complaining? anyway, people are spending money to see movies like...Bruno, so everything's prolly ok. also, nice, um, bow tie. it doesn't make you look gay at all.

It's not too late for America and the rest of the world for O'bummer to resign and get out of the way so we can save what is left.
Who will lead in '12? It won't be this president.

The stimulus is a huge failure. The 787 billion represents over $2,000 for every man woman and child in this country. Are you any better off now than when this huge thing was passed.

I am an independent minority voter. Quite frankly, President Obamas spending on this, on bailouts, on housing, are nothing more than ineffective payoffs to his constituents, unions, and others than benefit from entitlements.

I cant wait for the 2010 elections. Please stop this spending madness.

"We knew the tax cuts from the Bush stimulus don’t work."

Excuse me, but the Bush Tax Cuts took us out of a recession and resulted in 6 years of outsanding growth. Where was this guy? During this same time, revenues to the Treasury actually exploded rather than contracted, because the tax cuts spurred economic activity (as they always do).

The increased deficits under Bush were due to 9/11, 2 major wars and umpteen natural disasters – none of which Clinton faced. If not for those events unique to the Bush Admin, we would have finished 2008 with a HUGE surplus – due to the tax breaks.

This liberal lie that the "Bush Tax Cuts Cause The Deficit" is unsupported by any facts.

Newington High School, CT... needs repairs... send a check to the Newington Board of Education.. They have no problem spending tax dollars...

This is a good, quick commentary. I hope more people like Mr. Morici are trying to speak out in a positive and helpful way and advise our government. We need everyone throwing out real ideas; too often you only see politically charged slamming of a policy without a practical suggestion of a different policy, or a more nuanced policy.

Let's talk about shedding a few economists. Where were these supposed "experts" when the economy started to fail, in reality, about four years ago? they were shouting that there was no end to the growth pattern that was based, in many ways on false economic theory. While I do not fully agree with all aspects of the Stimulus Plan, much of it was based on assumptions the banks and other financial institutions would do things like provided the needed banking support for small business, perform appropriate "work outs" on defaulted mortgages, and the banks would resume acting like banks rather than dealers in exotic investment. The next big bubble burst will show up in the next several months as mortgages on commercial properties come due. Many of these mortgages were interest only for a fixed period, typically five or so years, and then a balloon payment is due. The property holder then either re-fied, sold the property or let it fall into foreclosure. The later will become very common as the mortgages were often for much more than the value of the commercial property. Again the banks and investment firms will cry the blues for theri mistakes. The banks literally or hording cash at the expense of small business and retail consumers. The reason for failure of the stimulus plan points directly at the banks and their economists. They are blaming anyone but themselves.

HE should of been president. maybe we wouldnt be in such a mess

[...] Stimulus – Zero Effect on Unemployment, Doomed to Fail Commentary: Obama's stimulus doomed to fail – amFIX – CNN.com Blogs Interesting read. The guy is not a partisan hack, either, but rather a fairly respected and [...]

Sheez, I am so glad I didn't go to University of Maryland to learn ECON. I'm sure fascism is the topic du jour in that state school.

President Obama’s stimulus doomed to fail... This country was failing before President Obama became President... What would you have done Peter!!!!!

Those who can – do....those can't become Economists. Just another egghead comment without merit. When was the last time he ran a government?

Why do presidents never listen to the really intelligent people on these issues?

About time someone spoke out about the waste that's been shoved down our throat.

OBAMA SHOULD HELP THE TAX PAYER NOT CO'S THAT HAVE GREATED THE PROBLEM THEY SHOULD HAVE STUCK WITH THE PLAN TO BAIL OUT THE HOME OWNERS WHO LOST THERE JOBS.
I JUST WONDER SOMETIMES IF ALL THOSE FIRES BURNING AROUND THE U.S. LAST YEAR WERE SET BY HOME OWNERS NOT WANTING TO DEAL WITH THERE MORGAGE CO'S.

P.S. ROME BURN TO THE GROUND WHEN NERO WOULD NOT HELP THE TAX PAYERS. COULD THIS BE THE FUTURE FOR AMERICA. A DEMOCRACY ONLY LAST SO LONG . TIME TO REBEL

OUR LABORERS BUILT THE U.S.A. THEY CAN BURN IT TO !!!!

If you want to help the economy help individuals-we are GDP. And not 1k at a time. Pay off all the bad consumer loans at .30 on the dollar (or whatever it takes) -make life affordable and we will spend again.

Giving tarp $$ to corporations so they don't fail is wrong. Obviously all they are doing is hording it. Look at Goldman Sacks-Washington gives them money all of a sudden they are profitable-amazing-is it new math or just common sense they invested it properly this time. . Washington does not have any common sense – Everything is over analyzed.

That is exactly right. We need to REBUILD, no build. Jobs, and we use up less land, helping the environment at the same time. pretty soon we won't have that land.

Um, GM's website says the Tahoe gets 14/20mpg and the Traverse gets 16/23. And actually, the Tahoe HY 1HY version gets 20/20mpg with a fuel/electric combo powertrain.

The facts don't add up here but I still know what he's getting at.

"What you got to do is just hand it to the mayors and county executives and say, “You got to spend x by the end of this year.” Then give them another chunk for next year"

I work for a city and that's exactly what's happened. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

this isn't any new revelation .... every conservative was saying this from the very beginning ... and were bulldozed by the Obama administration and its allies.
President Obama had one agenda from the beginning and used the economic downturn as an excuse to try to implement that agenda ... and the agenda is a socialist agenda ... defined as the government is the solution to our every problem and will take care of all of the serf citizens from cradle to grave.

Finally someone and not a Republican sees the light of reality & truth. Finally someone who not a republican has stopped drinking the cool-aid & has come back to reality. the government should have just said send us your bills at the end of the year relating to contruction projects like roads,levys, dams, education, health care. But no osama the cult leader is so stupid & inexperienced enough to realize this. He hasn't done a single thing right and yet people still drink the cool aid.

I agree. Obama should have put $800 billion into high speed rail and been done with it. Helps the environment, creates jobs, improves commerce. The WPA left a long legacy of projects that still help people today. This stimulus looks like it will leave no such legacy.

The " Shovel Ready" term is a joke. I travel through 4 different states on a regular basis. All of them are doing massive re-paving jobs. The bridges that need extensive work also need Engineering prior to being re-worked/replaced therefore they do not meet the "Shovel Ready' term. These states are not spending the money on the infrastructure that needs to be done ....they are spending it on re-paving. Many of the roads were re-paved 2-3 years ago. What a waste of the taxpayers money......However if I worked for a paving company I guess I would be thrilled.

All of Obama's so-called plans are doomed to fail because that is the democrat/liberal way. Why on earth people keep voting for tools like Obama is beyond me. All i know is that in the mid-term election in 2010 is the time to get rid of these democrat clowns in congress.

This is not a stimulus because the majority of the borrowed money is being spent to sustain areas we can not afford. In two years when the money runs out we will again note that we can not afford it but we will also owe the Chinese a trillion dollars. Hope is not a plan folks

great read.

why professor, you failed to mentioned the private sector and it's role in pulling the country out of the current economic climate (have you ever held a private sector job?). look at the last 7 recessions and analyze what role business (not gov't) has played. the "Washington Knows Best" mentality; mandate what type of car I can drive (take those SUV's away from people!) more regulations for private sector, more taxes on 'the rich'... Same old dem philosophy... change we can believe in – keep going in that direction and see how many more will be unemployed in the next 2 yrs. build a bridge – great. what happens to the bridge and ironworkers after project completion? back on unemployment – no chance of long-term, recurring income.. back on unemployment. spend, spend, spend and keep bloating Uncle Sam – brilliant! Hosanna Obama!

It is unfortunate that most of that money went to pet projects. And now we are seeing the same with the health care bill and the cap and trade. This administration has spent too much money with no accountability.

Finally, someone with enough guts to say this stimulus is a fraud. Everyone knew it would be now someone has come out and said it publicly. We are mortgaging future generations with debt. Your children and mine will be paying for this their lifetime. Wake up folks and vote these clowns out of office. Giving labor unions control of GM is like giving the keys to the jail to the inmates. We, the taxpayers, will be paying for this error for years.

Our founding fathers, (Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and all) are spinning in their graves at the sorry state this nation is in.

Why? Because it didn't come from the Republicans? You do remember that the FIRST stimulus package came from the George Bush regime in 2008 before Obama took office, right? And that it was released with NO strings attached, right? Seems to me that its the original stimulus thats the problem. The second stimulus has only been a problem because Congress is delaying its release while Republicans try to stop the money from going out to those that need it.

Sorry, but I'm tired of the Obama bashing, I'm tired of the Republicans, and I'm tired of the incredible greediness of the far right in this country.

This may be a shocker to you people but the world does NOT revolve around the greedy rich, its built on the backs of the middle and lower classes.

I'm am so tired of the people on the top that just want to rob the people on the bottom. We do NOT need a return to the Industrial Revolution mindset where the little people lived in abject poverty so that the rich could live high on the hog.

What we need is exactly what Obama is doing. What we need is another stimulus to put money directly into peoples pockets, pay off debt from the little people, and allow us all to start spending again. Giving money to the rich doesn't help a thing when the middle class and poor are the ones hurting.

So now it is "Obama's Stimulus"? You have every reason why it won't work and the suggestions you have are impracticle i.e. "...get China to unhinge its currency........" Good luck on that! See you at the QB table on Monday.........:)

Why doesn't Morici run for president. At the very least, Obama should put this guy on his staff as an advisor. It makes sense to force states to put the money into their infrastructure...it puts people to work, lots of them. Why is this so simple and yet seemingly impossible to execute. What a crock this stimulus is. fJust another way for our Congress to take our liberty and increase the size of government.

I agree with quite a bit of what is said here. However, I would add the following:
a. Why is is that HealthCare and Education were the two elements of the economy that are still adding jobs? If someone could answer that question, then maybe something learned there could be applied to other sectors of the economy
b. Invest in small business. Beef up the SBA, and provide not just loan guarantees, but also business grants or venture funding. To get funded by a VC, you need to know someone who knows someone who knows someone..Most entrepreneurs coming out of the blue will get little attention from the VCs. This is where the government can step in, fund these small businesses and create a support structure to facilitate their (small business) success. At the end of the day, the small business creates jobs, small businesses enhance innovation (as they have traditionally been the seed of most innovation), and the government can recoup its initial investment when it cashes out.
c. Invest in new technologies (nan-tech, and others). Provide grants to unviersities for research in these areas; provide tax breaks for companies that invest heavily in R&D. What this will do is generate new technologies and manufacturing methodologies that will make the US a competitive economy. China has us beat on the labor costs, well, where can we beat China to off-set this advantage and regain manufacturing? India has us beat on labor costs for IT workers and customer service related jobs..well, where can we off-set this advantage and regain our edge? This is where investment needs to flow
d. Education.. I read somewhere that about 15% of americans are college educated..this in a country where education (grade school through college) is virtually free. This needs to change, an uneducated population can not compete in a global economy. We need to make education a priority, and even if immigration reform is implemented, it should be mandated that for an illegal to become legal, they must obtain a bachelor's degree, at a minimum. We must force those people receiving Public Assistance to obtain an education...something like, "You can be on public assistance for 3 years, BUT at the end of those 3 years, you must have at least a bachelor's degree". We must elevate our overall educated status. And we must focus not on the simple and useless majors, but majors that will make us competitive again - engineering, science, technology...this is what wll put us in the lead. We must revamp our MBA programs such that they stop churning out Yes men and start producing TRUE LEADERS who can lead and grow business without off-shoring all aspects of the business. Business leaders who can think out of the box, and on their feet.

Peter you are so smart....you need to be our nation's economic advisor. I have always admired you candor and your comments do make sense and only wished the Obama administration would ask for your help.

economists are historians only. They have be very poor in predicting this financial mess. They draw analogies from the great depression.

I voted for and continue to be a supporter of president Obama; however, I completely agree with Mr. Morici regarding the failurs of the stimulus package. This money must be rammed through the advisers and red tape and be spent now! Giving it to the mayors and state governments with spending strictures attached is a good idea.

The stimulus is NOT a fraud. I'm so tired of people like Dave spreading lies and trying ot cause trouble. But then, thats the Republican way, isn't it. Someone muzzle these people before they start a civil war.

Prof Morici sounds right on many counts, and the outcomes do not augur well for anybody. To complicate matters, the official employment figures clamoflouge the underlying issues: underemployment, part-employment, and shrinking wages to levels not seen in this century even for the employed. If a broad notion of gainful employment is used or the payroll data are the main source we do not get the realistic scene. In other words, the route to recovery is very much constrained by limited job creation attenuated by the above features. As long as the refinance and loan modification in the mortgage sector cannot be brought to order, the serious problems of recovery will prolong. Fortunately some of these are avoidable if there is a will.
Dr P K Rao.

Sounds logical. Neither Bush nor Obama are economists. It will take actual experts to fix this nightmare. Let's start making things work. The Obama years can be great as long as there are good ideas for him to work with. We got stubborn Bush out of there so I don't see any reason why we can't turn his mess around.

Well now I'd say to:
force 47 million people to retire give them each a million dollars,
and they have to buy a house or pay off their mortgage, buy a new car, and never go back to work and spend the rest as they like which would be for food and goods

that would create
47 million jobs, feed the housing economy
and the auto industry will boom again
then the jobs created will boost the economy and put us back on target.
why keep just giving us a small boost when this will stimulate everything

All of this sounds interesting, but the real issue is that the stimulus money was never really intended to pump up the former capitalist system and create jobs. It is instead a layered series of payoffs to unions, blue states, and other assorted heathens sympathetic to NoBama's plan to fulfill a very large and permanent social engineering plank. Oh, and we forgot: it's also a plan to reward certain banks and other vampires at the gate for their past vast monetary support of liberal causes.

Common sense is not common anymore. It is a rarity in the world of politics and almost nonexistent in the world of national politics. Our present self-exalted elected officials pass legislation with no more thought of the long term consequences than a bathroom break and for nothing more than a political advantage or a campaign contribution. Each political party blames our problems as a country on the other as if either had the interest of the common American in the forefront of their considerations. Think of the problems we face and have been facing for decades. The problems are basically the same. No solutions, only ill conceived legislation that has done nothing but erode the basic freedoms defined by our Constitution and our Bill of Rights at a cost of over three billion dollars a year just to pay their salaries and expenses. A common denominator regarding most of our problems as a country: we have repeated elected the same do nothing, egocentric, rotten politicos over and over. Consider how many of our congressmen and women have turned a public service position into one of the most lucrative and corrupt jobs in the world. They talk only of raising taxes or cutting social programs. There is no talk of cutting foreign aid or rescinding their recent salary increases. They frivolously spend from 150 billion to well over 200 billion per year in foreign aid. That is money we pay to support non-Americans and foreign countries many of whom are enemies of America. Recent surveys indicate that over 80% of Americans do not support our foreign aid programs and less than 5% even have any idea of the vast sums of our money that actually goes to the support of foreigners. America needs proactive forward thinking officials; men and women with common sense not a PhD. How many of you know a PhD who has more than sprinkling of common sense? I can tell you from experience, not many. I know this sound harsh but the alternative will be the destruction of our beloved country and the future of our children. Right is right. Wrong is wrong and something has to be done.

The money should have gone to the middle and lower class. They are struggling and would've put the money against their bills instead of hoarding it. This would've went throughout the system and stimulated virtually every sector. The infrastructure claim seems to help a very small segment. Even worse banks are making it nearly impossible to get money due to greater credit restrictions, higher rates, etc. - even from those accepting bailout money. That money did nothing. This was a pork filled package that is the greatest travesty of a president ever. What he is talking about now (two years) would've happened all on its own without any stimulus money of any kind. Way to give the future of this country away! This is an ACORN method of intentionally imploding the system so you can rebuild it the "socialist" way.

Melissa you are an idiot. I hope BO's comming depression bankrupts you and then MAYBE you will get a clue.

Plenty of articles like this, quoting long-dead and forgotten economists, were written about FDR in the 30s. I've got news for Mr. Bowtie: you may have generated publicity for yourself now, but when school children of the 22nd century are learning how Obama was one of our greatest presidents, you'll be lucky if the grass over your grave has even been mowed!

The entire Obama plan is so amusing, when you read that NY has committed a stimulus project to a Dutch-owned company. I'm sure that is going to produce a lot of jobs for American workers in NY.

Most Americans knew this plan was going to be about waste, based on the surveys of the public taken. There are times, you know, when the congress should listen to their own constituents.

They keep saying that America's economy is 3/4's driven by consumer spending.... okay...got it. They say we American's for the most part ("...unless your Warren Buffet") are one serious illness or medical cause away from bankrupcy... yeah... I can see that. They've (our government) have given a small amount of the stimulus total too nothing much... yeah, well I thought it was suppose to create or 'save' 3 or 4 million jobs...seems we are loosing that number ...so show me the money.

As I see it, if it is us: Joe Q Public that keeps the economy running why not give each and every American a large substantial amount of stimulus? After all wouldn't that prevent payment defaults and possibly create new investments and new businesses that would hire, pay taxes, pay off balances and generate new tax dollars on new sums from those new monies generated from that stimulus to we Americans? The creeps that run shows in our finance and properties industries, when given the money to prop their loosing concerns are given these bailouts, nothing is getting done. I am as American and proud of that as any loyal citizen can be, but I don't see much to look forward to anymore except to do my time on this earth and hurry up and die! If there was ANYWHERE on this earth to go to I would gladly leave this country for greener pastures and opportunities then to stay in this very selfish and ignorant nation. This is not my America any more. Government and corrupt people have changed it so dramatically I don't recognize this nation as the one I was pledging aligence to since age 5. I don't care anymore... USA... to the highest bidder or most underhanded.

Ah I love the comments here compared to FoxNews...people here disagree with Obama but they give reasons. Way better than the name-calling that goes on over there.

I think (and hope) that the stimulus will have a positive effect, if not directly on the economy then on the development of green energy and on the improvement of education and infastructure.

The stimulus was good for "Government Street", but not for "Main Street". They thought that it would trickle down, but it didn't. Republican's wanted tax cuts, but that would not work either. Obama is a great leader, but stimulus was a mistake. Unfortunately, they cut out Paul Volcker early on, and he has an enormous amount of wisdom.

Morici is very right about his view of the Stimulus. We have switched from a national economy to an international economy. Unfortunately, China (and other countries) is manipulating currency. We need to adjust our tariff system for countries that do not want to play fair. We can take that extra tariff money and grant it to disadvantaged businesses who are damaged by this practice. Afterall, this is what China is doing! This is a very simple solution that would reverse our massive trade deficit, and put a lot of Americans back to work. A very simple solutions that would pay for itself.

Most of the stimulus money that has come into our area is not being spent. We are not sure where the money is, or when it might be spent. The money needed to be flooded into the economy to be effective. And, that just did not happen.

Ever since this recession began, the credibility of economists and their predictions have declined faster than the economy. These "artists" that are judging the President's policies are the same people who claimed that the country could not survive but indeed thrive as it switched to a service economy. Well their predictions were wrong then and are probably wrong now.

Perhaps they should go back to the institutions that gave them their PhDs and ask for their money back or at least go back and relearn their class lessons.

To Melissa:

Obama's plan is supposed to help the middle and lower class. So when people point out the short comings of Obama's plan to assist that group, you suddenly defend his actions?

I fall into Obama's "rich" after my wife and I have worked our way through school to secure reasonable paying jobs. He's now going to be taking more of money away from me with increased taxes.....money I would have spent on products and services which would have required people to create and support. But since MY dollars are now going to fund budget deficits that government didn't protect itself from, I won't be able to use my funds to create jobs.

So sure, tax the rich like crazy. We'll see how many jobs get added.

Great perspective from Morici here. The stimulus was marketed with the expectation that it would have immediate results and stop the unemployment rate from rising. It was just another broken promise along with the list of his other campaign promises. Only thing I disagree with Morici here is the mileage standard. Let's use an "all of the above" approach with our own oil, natural gas and power plants here in the US for energy.

Why is President Obama waiting to act? Why are tens of millions of ordinary Americans suffering under the weight of this economic downturn being ignored by this administration? Why could the abundant credit lines of the Clinton era that grew small business and helped towns and communities flourish be replaced by government cheese lines?

Two reasons. President Obama's disdain and disconnect with working class, ordinary Americans is a constant, not an anomaly. President Obama's comments at the closed-door California fundraiser about how blue collar Pennsylvanians cling to their Bibles and guns in times of uncertainty wasn't a Freudian slip, it was what we call in the legal profession an excited utterance, which are often accepted as exceptions to hearsay because statements blurted out in the moment have an amazing capacity to be "accidently" true.

Secondly, this President has a miser's grip on political capital and is unaware or unwilling to consider risking a tenth of a percentage point in approval rating among moderate voters by enacting emergency measures to speed relief to struggling families. It was laughable to see the mainstream media attempting to compare Barack Obama to FDR when in fact, Obama claims Ronald Reagan as his Presidential role model, disdained the Clinton legacy at every turn during the primaries and has not made a political move inconsistent with that for the whole of his Presidency.

There are solutions that can resolve the continuing spiral of unemployment, foreclosures and middle class misery in the United States. This mere African American lawyer in Washington D.C., knows of three "21st New Deal" type actions that would provide relief from day one. But in President Obama's Katrina moment, Obama dislpays the very lack of political will he accused Washington D.C. of having when it comes to taking risks to help ordinary Americans.

The economic challenges crippling millions of Americans right now required bold leadership and action from day one of the 44th President of the United States. It should have been Hillary. The Clintons have done this before and have never lost their connection with the ordinary, working class Americans who drive this economy. Obama never had it and unless he embraces "radical change" that he promised to bring...won't have it.

It's not just the governments red tape – it's also the unions! Non-union people are ready to work NOW – and their services are not as expensive as unions. When a non union company gets the job – all people on that job work unlike 1 works while 5 stand around watching with their arms crossed (union). Like the joke says "Jesus told the union workers not to start working until He comes back.

When we are importing new citizens as quickly as we are importing goods from the countries they come from, what do you expect but a meltdown? Those new citizens don't understand the concept of BUY AMERICAN, nor do they care.

I agree with spending on schools so that we build a foundation of our own citizens that can comprehend when the wool is being pulled over their eyes like it was during the Bush regime. Fostering a sub-intellectual populous is a goal of many tyrants who want to keep control by distracting uneducted people from what is really happening.

What was really happening while Bush was in office was Machiavellian phylosphy of "I will do absolutely everything in my power to stay in office" which is what Bush Sr. actually said in his failed re-election bid. We're paying that price now.

Give a year or two to repair damage done over 8 years. That damage was so significant, it's likely to take a generation...not six months. It will not happen with republican interferance and rhetoric like Morici is spouting. We buy cheap junk because we have a disposable mind-set, and have been burned so badly by US made junk, that even when it has improved, we still haven't shaken that ill feeling that was created...and is still around due to AIG and the like burning us still.

Educate the population and we will again be able to compete. Stop bringing every Tom, Dick and Harry over the boarder, and stop giving freebies to those here illegally that spend my tax dollar. Make a good product. Market it intelligently, not dumbing down to the lowest common denominator that's been policy for 8 years of Bush.

It seems that Melissa is missing one BIG point. It is not the "Rich" getting the money...it is big businesses who donate HUGE sums to the political party they think they can get the most back from, and in this case it is Obama's party. Granted, both parties have taken money from business, but that's not the point. The point is, that your version of "what happened" is behind the current curve. How do you feel about the huge executive bonuses pai with YOUR money (and MINE)? Look at your neighbors driveways over the next few months and see if any new cars appear. The "little" people will never see any of this money, even though that is where THEY, meaning your friend Obama, promised it would go. Did YOU get any? Did the lady photographed standing on top of the phone booth waiting for her "Big Screen T.V. that Mr. Obama promised me" get any? Did any of your neighbors get some? Neither did I...
Wake up.

Notamused, who said that stimulus is WELFARE? You are very daring (or ignorant) to apply a welfare study to an economic stimulus.
The reason might be that in you wish the stimulus to fail, so you reason accordingly even if it does not make sense. Remember: Wishing something does not make it so!

Anybody that finds it appropriate to wear a bowtie like that, making himeself look like a comedy, shouldn't be taken seriously on anything of importance.

I've worked as a Logistics/Production mgr in Manufacturing for a number of yrs, and have watched the mfg sector meltdown 1st hand.
Readers need to know that no major policy decisions, ie. foreign trade or setting currency values, takes place in China without approval of central party planning committees – it does not happen willy-nilly. The removal of our jobs (and economic strngth) by China is the result of planning, not accident.

When will we wake up and discover that we've been taken to the cleaners?
I just got two shipments of stainless steel (from a Chinese supplier) which were radioactive. Caught by Homeland Security at the port, the steel was sent back to China. We believe the bad steel came from decommissioned nuclear reactors.... Defective goods – but they are cheapest, which matters most.
Having driven most US competitors out of business, this vendor can now dictate prices to us, and have passed on some healthy $$ increases lately.
- I want every member of Congress to be aware of what's going on, and hold China accountable for their currency manipulation and quality problems.

With all respect to the professor, a good part of a strong economy relies on the consumer's state of mind. His comments about the stimulus being "doomed to fail" don't help. Zip it.

Wow – what a contorted set of facts – half truths – and omissions

For example

"""And you know, the state and local governments for all their crying, and all of Mr. Obama’s exertations, weren’t laying people off. Employment was growing through the time the stimulus package was signed. Both education, noneducation, state, and local. And since it’s been signed, it’s continued to grow at approximately the same pace"""

1. Agree until date of signing the states and cities were not laying off

2. Agree the pace of employment at local gov is about the same

From this the so called economist connects the dots and says stimulus money is not saving jobs at local levels. If has done any research in his life he knows he needs a control group – say half the the states if they had not received stimulus money vs those that did.
With no control he has no way of being honest in what he says as a fact

One could argue – again without the control group a hypothesis – that things got worse as houding prices and spending and unempoyment declined and city and state budget situations deteriorated a ton since the signing -– thus the lack of massive layoffs suggests that the stimulus money IS BEING USED AS THE GOVERNORS AND MAYORS IN SO MANY PLACES HAVE SAID – TO SAVE POLICE FIRE SAFETY EDUCATION HEALTH ETC WORKERS

That is just one example of lies lies and statistics in the above analysis of the situation. (My favorite being the assumption that if you gave the mayors and governonrs a deadline to spend money they would find ways to circumvent their diligent procurement processes – I assume the so called economist is saying GRAFT and Cousins would have gotten the money spent?

Economists and bankers are not worth spit !
However, his comments on China and foreign oil are worth merit, and we need to stop sending our dollars and jobs abroad. Both the Chinese and Arabs countries are not our friends, but they have hidden agendas.

First thing we have to do is stop out sourcing; bring the jobs back to the US. Next, don't spend what you don't have., simple basic household budgeting...to be silly have Chaney give back all the money he made from Haliberton. HA! That will never happen.

If the stimulus succeeds in the short term, the economy and American way of life will be decimated by our runaway debt. We can point the fingers at Bush or Obama, but our fate is still the same.

Many economists predict around 2015-2020 the interest payments alone on our national debt will consume well over 80% of our GDP. At that point even the most aggressive taxation plan (not just the rich) and cuts in spending will not dig us out.

We can all keep pointing fingers, but I'm afraid the "train has already left the station."

Have we all forgotten that small business employs more folks than large companies or the gov't? What was in the stimulus for small business? These businesses must hire in order for us to emerge from the recession. Consumer spending must also increase. A lousy $8-$10 a pay period isn't going to stimulate spending. Obama boasts about this tax cut but it had no impact and wasn't large enough.

One thing is for sure. Increasing taxes on the wealthy for healthcare reform and increasing taxes on us all with cap and trade is a recipe for disaster in a recession. Raising taxes is the last thing we should do!

I am a fairly socially liberal democrat, but am considered an economically conservative blue dog. As painful as TARP and the funding goes, doing research into the asset sheets and the way our economic system works provides that the bailout of these companies was 100% necessary. Regardless, this individual has some interesting ideas. I think we forget sometimes that the new model of Economics, what is referred to as Keynesian economics, is one which involves government regulation. This is not socialism, but simply the capitalistic economic notions on which our country is based. However, spending can get out of hand. Government doesn't have the ability to be efficient in a purely competitive marketplace because they have no competition. Welfare and social services are very important, but when we start depending on the government to provide jobs, things start to get scary. Keep the welfare and social programs that our taxes have traditionally payed for, and start to help the individuals from the ground up. I guarantee that 99% of citizens could use that $2,000 significantly more efficiently than government projects and program. I'll bet this loss for those saving against government efficiency any day of the week.

We can't borrow our way out of our debt problem.
We can't stimulate our way out of a worldwide recession.
We need to cut spending a suffer through a recession and then we'll come back stronger in a few years.
Because we are too weak to face the cyclical downturns that happen (no bodies fault!) we borrow against our children and grandchildren to make our lives seem easier for the moment.

President Obama's economic policies are failing and will damage our country for decades. I would like to say that Bush did a better job, but alas he was almost as bad as Obama. We need a 3rd party alternative!!!

[...] Obama Stimulus Doomed to Fail [...]

Morici may be a economist, but he is fundamentally wrong. He is accursing china of printing money, but it is the US that is buying chinese goods with printed money. The race is not in who is printing more money, it is about who can sell.

thanks for the promising positive words. people like you give no ideas in an economy. this is a very delicate time in our country and yet..economists like these come out and talk rubbish.

It seems that Melissa is missing one BIG point. It is not the "Rich" getting the money...it is big businesses who donate HUGE sums to the political party they think they can get the most back from, and in this case it is Obama's party. Granted, both parties have taken money from business, but that's not the point. The point is, that your version of "what happened" is behind the current curve. How do you feel about the huge executive bonuses paid with YOUR money (and MINE)? Look at your neighbors driveways over the next few months and see if any new cars appear. The "little" people will never see any of this money, even though that is where THEY, meaning your friend Obama, promised it would go. Did YOU get any? Did the lady photographed standing on top of the phone booth waiting for her "Big Screen T.V. that Mr. Obama promised me" get any? Did any of your neighbors get some? Neither did I...
Wake up.

Such partisan bickering in the comments. At least get the facts straight when it comes to who owns this economy. And the facts are the Democrats own this economy.

George Bush proposed his stimulus and it was passed by Democrats, not Republicans. In fact, House Republicans were livid. Presidents don't make law, they just sign them. The Democrats have been in control for the last 2 1/2 years. Amazingly coincidental that's when the economy goes into the crapper.

Dave you are spot on with your analysis of China. As long as we have no local production of goods, and remain a service-based economy, we will face issues like this. Cheap labor must now be government funded projects. Once China ends its currency manipulation and puts it on the free market, trade will be more free because markets will be more efficient due to competition. Goods from China will go up in price, and it will again become profitable to produce them in the US. This in and and of itself will help correct unemployment and the lack of balance in our service/goods sectors

This is tyaxpayer money..not Obama's money. Why must the great Obama force these issues through a rubber stamp congress without anyone being able to carefully read them. The stimulas is a big govt spending failure just the cap and trade will be. Now the forced unread medical overhaul will be the same way. WE won't be able to afford much more govt. Or course, thats what liberals like Obama want, lety the govt furnish your day to day needs while you turn all your money over to them.

Morici: I’m no Republican......Get outa here. Look in the mirror, see that stupid Bushesque looking grin on your face and tie to match, now say with a straight face, I'm no Republican. My bad, I'm sure you could, just like Bush did when he said there were WMD in Iraq and we don't torture, etc.

What part of hope and change does he not understand? Let the man work his magic. I just know he can.

Hi Melissa,
My guess is that you are poor and want some money. Am I right?
-Alex

I doubt this will get posted because for one it's true and secondly it would work .

The numbers have been changed only slightly for ease of understanding.

Last U.S. Census -– 430 million americans.

For the sake of ease, let's assume that all 430 million are taxpaying working adults.

You give every single one 1 million dollars.

that would come to 430 million dollars.

That would be less then half of 1 billion dollars

Myself- I would almost instantly go out and #1 buy a home, a really nice home, payed for, which is a form of power.

#2 several cars with over 40 k price tags.

#3 a few degrees in science and arts, etc.

#4 The rest goes into a secret location protected from everything short of the almighty. even weather.

I highly doubt my spending would be rare, infact, likely people would buy much more if not spend it all.

While this is going on, the law should suspend all credit. Whatever a million dollars can get you, once it's gone go soak your head. No one is going to listen to a sob story of how you wasted your million.

That is what we missed out on. Being the first nation or culture to do so well that we could give our citizens a fortune, literally.

Guys like bush however who inherited their fortune not from their parents but from great grandparents who actually did work hard, maybe not the oil folk, but others, they don't think you deserve it, not that that's the role of the president, to decide. It's merely to enforce the constitution, which is not open for interpretation.

800 billion dollars folks. Versus' 430 million

But what no politician will say, but all beleive is that were stupid minions who exist to work hard so they can skim off the top.

How to aviod this you say, simple, One term limits on senators and congressmen and no more then two from one family may participate. This is needed now as are current problem is born from secret royalty like the bush and kennedy families. JFK spoke out against this and his Vice president clan murdered him. This is now common knowledge and it's simply because some of the conspirators , BUSHS' DAD!! are still alive.

Wow, still playing the Bush-card.

The egos of professors like Morici indicate that no matter what your title you can do harm to the country by stating your educated view to the media. Why don't you, Morici, do something smart and just teach. You are not helping by predicting failure. Look in your mirror. Think about how much good that does? You are showing your ego and that is all. Sorry for you and others like you; over educated without a lick of common sense and what is good for the country. Go away. Bill

We don't need another stimulus package. The big oil companies and Saudi's will take that by raising the gas prices to over $4.50 again. Didn't you all notice that before Bush left office on his stimulus, that is what took it from everyone or else it might have worked. As soon as all of the stimulus checks were gone, then the gas prices went back down.

TIM,
July 15th, 2009 11:13 am ET

The stimulus is a huge failure. The 787 billion represents over $2,000 for every man woman and child in this country. Are you any better off now than when this huge thing was passed.

ACTUALLY I AM BETTER OFF....BETWEEN 100 BUCKS BACK IN MY & MY WIFE CHECK A MONTH AND THE 150 A MONTH WE SAVED ON REFINANCING....I HAVE AN ADDITIONAL 250 NET A MONTH TO PUT AWAY OR SAVE...i WILL PURCHASE SOME NEW WINDOWS AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DEDUCTION... DOING OK HERE IN BOSTON..!!

It's all Bush's fault, hopefully we can continue this until the 2012 elections. After Bush's first term he mentioned his predessesor Clinton twice during the first 2 weeks of his term , after that the country and its problems became his...Man up Obama.

Tyrone: you shouldn't talk about Bill Clinton that way. He was just trying to be the hero to the lower income class and then got out of office before the bubble burst. Granted Uncle George did a horrible job to fix the problem that's on him, but he didn't cause the problem, that's on slick Willy.

This was the most useless article I've ever read. Just hand over x amount of cash to the mayors and county executives....yeah, that's a sound plan....and then 10 years letter you'll find out that so-and-so mayor/county executive received kickbacks from a construction project and pocketed x amount. I find it amusing (but more troubling) that people think that in 6 months Obama is going to turn the country around. Is that realistic? I'm not blaming Bush (i.e pointing fingers) and by no means am I going to say that everything that Obama is doing is right but let's be realistic....look how long it took for this mess to develop right under the noses of those who should have seen it coming. Is it reasonable to think that anyone (Bush, Obama, McCain, whoever) would be able to fix the problem in six months?

Obama wants to win the support of those with little education and living off subsidies. His kind preach they want to help these folks but never will as they need them for votes, so they will always make sure the downtrodden exist while lying to them and counting on their lack of education to recognize the scam.

Obama better hope that stimulus kicks in soon. 2010 is just around the corner and if the unemployment is still close to 10% in November 2010, no amount of kool-aid or Obama musings will prevent a wholesale exodus of libs out of the House and Senate.

Only contribute to this if you can form a cogent thought, please.

Typical naysayer. We are 5 months into a multi-year program. But he already knows how it's going to turn out? C'mon. This sounds like the Senate and House floors where a few loud voices are crying out and saying the same thing because they WANT it to fail.

It took GW EIGHT YEARS to get us into this hole. It's going to take time to get us out. We don't determine if a pizza is ready after 2 minutes of the 20 it takes in the oven. If in 20 minutes it's still not ready, then by all means throw it away. But give it a chance to cook first.

Now some guys here just totally forgot why we have this mess. Last administratino "DOUBLED" our national debt, remember? And we have to pay huge interests every year for these IOUs. Do you think there was any choice you could do when whole financial market crashed last year (in Bush administration)? I don't think any president like to do stimulus package, but without government intervention, the economy woulde definitely sink into depression.

Most of this so called stimulus was just pork barrel projects for democrat backers as a reward for the election and is going to be wasted. Spend it all on the interstates and rail networks to help keep us competitive. Giving money to big city mayors is the equivalent of throwing it down the toilet, the only one who will benefit are friends of the politicians.

As for the tariff, when we start importing cares from China (bet money on it, its going to happen) are we going to slap them with a corresponding tariff? I doubt it....

We have truly become a nation of whiners. The federal government did not identify the so called "shovel ready" projects. That came from the state governments. Many projects are mired in special interest groups that have agendas other than to create jobs. The Bush administration funded a stimulus that put money in the hands of the taxpayers and the money ended up either in the bank or used to pay down debt.

President Obama did not start this mess and not everything that is attempted through the current administration is going to work as planned. Face it, if the solution was going to be easy, they would have one you whiners fix it.

Accountability does not begin and end at the federal level. President Obama said many times that the recovery is going to take time. We did not get into the mess overnight and it will not be solved overnight.
It is obvious that many "Americans" want the recovery to occur in their timeframes and on their terms.

I was fortunate to have travelled to other countries during the presidential campaign and asked the locals what they thought of Americans. By far, the most common responses were:
1. Americans are too arrogant.
2. Americans think the universe revolves around them.
3. Americans do not have patience.
4. American think they are better than everyone else on the planet.
5. Americans are spoiled.
6. When things don't go our way, we attack everyone around us.

We should be so proud!

sorry – line 3, "10 years later" not letter

To reference one of the prior comments – "The Bush Tax Cuts did work"... I would like to say that yes they did, but at an extreme cost. As President Bush went tax-cut happy – cutting the tax rates for primarily the wealthy and businesses – he also we spending crazy. The influx of revenues from those remaining taxes were insufficient to meet the demand for the increased spending (i.e. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). In order to meet those obligations the US had to sell treasuries, a tremendous amount. A large recipient of these treasuries was China. So in essence we did have a "booming" economy, but at the expense of a completely unbalanced budget, a skyrocketing deficit, and the selling of America to the Chinese. Thank you, Mr. President.

He probably would have lost his job by now if not for Obama's bold moves...

Check your facts. Traverses do not get twice the mileage as Tahoes.

Why do economist always wear bow-ties??

Someone should have been offering some advice to Mr. Bush and maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!!! But if it didn't involve oil and shooting and blowing people up, he didn't want anything to do with it.

The comments in this segment are funny, and proof that we don't stand together as a nation. Ultimately if we all want to fix what is broken we will all stand together to realized once and for all the real problem with America and it's economy. We don't make anything in this country anymore. Wal-Mart and other super chains like them have forced companies to get goods from overseas. Yes, shopping at Wal-mart saves money, but not jobs, or salaries for Americans. We play the international trade game by a gimped double standard. We allow every product to come here for nothing, but pay massive tariffs to sell goods made in this country elsewhere. It's time to close up the American shop and fix ourselves from the inside and stop worrying about the wrongs of the rest of the world. It is after all how America became the power it was in the first place. Doesn't anyone remember Teddy Roosevelt?

Why doesn't this idiot do something to help the economy instead of pointing out that it will fail. Its time to put up or shut up people!!!
If all of us actually did something for our communities things might actually get done. Instead all you have is a bunch of whiners complaining how everything is going, while they sit behind there desks.

No one has yet to point out that the fundamental flaw (Gerald came closest) to all this talk of the so-called "stimulus" is that...WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY! We can't continue to try to run this democracy by living and spending beyond our means.

The normal counter to this point is to say, "we'll just grow the economy and debt will remain only a small portion of the GDP". Small portion?!? According to a Raymond James Q2 report just released, the US debt is now almost 79% of the GDP, jumping about 7% in just the last few quarters, thanks to all this glorious spending. Keep in mind, banks and financial institutions are still failing, commercial loans are just beginning to implode, and Obama is talking about yet another "stimulus" as well as taking over health care and starting up the "cap and trade" tax plan.

None of this is sustainable and in these times (9.5% unemployment and climbing) it's sheer, irresponsible MADNESS!

What informed opinions we have here! So how many of you
became professors of economics? Put your politics aside
and open your ears and listen. It boils down to 9.5%
unemployment and trade issues with China. Just the
facts.

The money should go to the people. I am sorry, but taking the Stimulus and TARP funds and giving it to the companies is absurd. Where did that money come from....US, and we should get it back. The banks made the underwriting decisions to lend bad money, and then eth government is going to give them more? Three types of people, spenders, savers, and the ones who will payoff debt. What would you do with an extra $10k?Take that TARP and stimulus money and give back to the people in installment, and you will see spending up, debts down, or bank accounts getting heavy. If the banks are going to get the money, then it needs to be expressly put towards the customers debts and running balances to reduce the payments for the customers, then they will spend or save more! You want to talk about taxes, why not flat sales tax? At that point you hit all of those people not paying taxes who are illegal aliens or hide their money in tax shelters.

One last thing, its directly not Obama's fault, its not bush's fault... they cant do anything without congressional approval. I am in the mortgage industry for 10 yrs, and the houseing and lending problems started 20 yrs before Bush took office.

The guy is right and the "stimulus "( like Obama ) is a colossal failure.

And all I read on here are liberals all hot and bothered that their "messiah "is already a failure.

Get used to what you read above because more and more people are getting upset that they are being coned by a far left community organizer turned media sensation. Obama cannot run the country; he isn't that smart and is a pure ideolog, no more no less.

The truest statement in the whole article was "we import too much from China without selling there". The stimulus will fail not because of bad planning but because our economy as a whole is colasping because we import way more than we export. Unless Obama creates jobs/products that can be sold to other countries we are doomed? We need a plan to bring money into the USA, not recirculate it among our selves- ironicly the stimulus requires to buy American steel (Obama being from a steel state), but says nothing about hiring only legal americans, so an illegal can go work on a stimulus project and then send the money he earns out of the USA.

what a bunch of idiots post here! Get off the former administration trip your all on and start looking at what the current one is doing. If you still can't see what this guy is doing then your an educated idiot and this country is headed for disaster. This is not about republican democrat, they are all screwing us! open your eyes you idiots!

The formula – spend without direction, take government control of business, over regulate, promise to solve everybody's problems and give everybody health care, and then tax -tax-tax-tax. Where do you think the money comes from?? It comes from us working people that try to support thier families. The government won't fix the problem – they are making it worse. How do you like social security (it's going bankrupt), how to you like medicare (it's going bankrupt), and now we're giving away $800B and promising to provide health care – what a JOKE. The next two generations will be working and paying for this rediculus approach........

I’m tired of the incredible greediness of the far right in this country.

Are you stoned, little girl? "Greediness of the far right"? Where do you see that?!?

In the 800 million dollars John Kerry married? In the Kennedy compound? In the Mcansions of every multi-millionaire Hollywood douchebag? Grow up, Melisssa.

I wonder how many "shovel-ready" project Univ of Maryland has? That being said, people seem to forget that the system was crashing fast. The so called "stimulus funds", in my opinion, were really meant to change the angle of decent and buy time to allow the private sector to self correct. What would have happended to consumer confidence if the credit marked had collapsed, and GM and Crystler file for bankruptcy? Ask yourself what would have happened if no action was taken? Both republicans and democrates saw the danger. This aftermath is just political grand standing. Shrinking middle-class working longer hours for the same pay, CEO's paid bonuses while the company loses money, no long term planning, living on credit...are these American values?

I'm going to see Harry Potter the Wizard later. Perhaps he can provide me with some pixy dust in order for me to find work. The cost of admission might be worth the chance such as where we all find ourselves, with a chance not any opportunities.

Props to those understand the China issue. If you don't think you fully understand TARP, there are some good papers/books out there to explain the way our financial system is structured, and why it was so important to stop these firms from imploding.

Everyone is ignoring the real issue that Mr. Morici brought up: China. And how is anything he said facist? Most of the above comments make absolutely no sense, but they seem to be made by people that have way too much faith in the government.

Let's not forgot who really got us into this mess. The Senate Finance Committee, requiring the easing of lending standards. Secondly Obama's stimulus plan is nothing more than a bandaid. It will provide temporary relief, but not fix the economy. The way to fix our economy is not to have bigger government, they are the ones that for years and years all the way back to Clinton created this crisis. The gov't needs to just get out of the way and let American business fix our economy. Instead, we're going to tax them and not provide incentives for growth. Socialism is not the answer to fix our economy. Too many people in this country are looking for free hand outs, rather than getting off their lazy butts and actually making something out of themselves. I trust smart business men over lawyers in washington anyday.

"Help the People not the companies that got us into this mess'

Help People- They buy stuff and invest in less stuff but spend they do.

Help companies- Companies are collections of people and far fewer are the rich than is made out most are owned by savings investment in one form or another of People...=help People See line 1.

Help state and local govenments-These are collections of people too with broad and disperate interests...yes...but still just people =People see line 1.

Help is help- Govenment in general should tax and save more in good times either building up a reserve or at least reducing the marginal debt as a ration to GDP; thus absorbing boom time prospertity. During bad times government in general sould spend more as a function of GDP thus completeing the cycle and reitroducing funds taken from the peak and helping to infill the vally.
To a limit. This kind of saving from the good time to carry you thought the bad applies only to doing what it is that govenment should be doing. You pay more for a set of services during the good time so they can offer a break on the same service during the bad. So in effect the spend side is the same and the tax side floats with prosperity more tax in good times less in bad. Services remain thee same.

In any case how how stimulate outside that model requires that you look at all people and collections of people as people period. Then spend that stimulus in a manner that merely excellerates what you where going to do anyway later...replace bridge, fix school, get clunkers off the road, build alternative energy...So that later when things are better and the bills come in you have fewer things to buy and room in the budget (with those higher boom time taxes) to pay the tab.

Obama had to use part of the money to pay off his Democrat friends that got him into office and he's saving part of the money for buying his way into the next election. Everyone knows this. This money was for the Government, not the common people of America. Obama is a pro politician and this is what politicians do weather it's Republicans or Democrats. "We The People" need to wise up.

Melissa.......you poor brainwashed little drone....

First of all, government spending disguised as stimulus cannot work....ever....

Why? Well, to raise the 787 billion dollars, the government needs to sell bonds....now China buys a good chunk (BUT NOT ALL) of these bonds...Another huge chunk is bought by AMERICANS....

and buying bonds is a form of SAVINGS....so Americans take their CASH and buy billions in bonds.....

Obummer then takes TWO YEARS to get this money out (MONEY THAT WAS ALREADY IN OUR ECONOMY)

Obama's "stimulus" is just moving money around really.....and SLOWLY

The proof is in the pudding. Unemployment is rising.....deficits are RISING.......Your taxes will soon be RISING to pay for this mess.......

HAHAHAHAHA I like how some of the posts blame economist & not President Obama. How pathetic, economist didn’t sell the American people a bill of goods that could NEVER have been fulfilled.

I don't understand why people don't think that the government is a major player in the economy. The government aggregates and redistributes – in a market that is 2/3 consumers, redistribution of wealth is ESSENTIAL to maintain growth. You may not like it, but that's what capitalism is – and, as we just found out, concentration of wealth and reliance on debt to supplant true growth in wages and productivity is doomed to failure. Socialism is the governor of the negative effects of capitalism – it helps to ensure responsible growth. And, by the way, when you buy a hamburger, you DO, in fact, pay for someone to tell you what you think you want to eat and for someone to tell the cashier what you think you want. Your consumer dollars pay for R&D, marketing, training, strategy, executive compensation, and shareholders profits – it's not a one-to-one relationship except under very limited circumstances...

Amazing how many people on here cannot see the forest for the trees. There is no shame in admitting you made a mistake voting for Obama. Intelligent people change their minds with new information.

Obama is trying to change the agreement he made with American people in order to get elected. He promised change from Bush. Bush was a spender, on wars, on stimulus packages that didn't work. Obama is more of the same. How many times must it be proven that you cannot spend your way out of a recession?

It is clear what our leader must do. Lower taxes, incentivize innovation and growth by rewarding the people with solid business plans and a track record of success. Look for energy sources here at home short term (coal, gas, oil), and long term (Nuclear, Wind, Hydro). Stop illegal immigration by militarizing the border immediately. Change the trading relationship with China now that they need us as much as we need them. There are many more ideas that would both immediately improve the ecomony and set this country back on track, and none of them are new ideas. They have proven to work time and time again.

We've only started to see how much a failure Obama's policies will be . . .wait til the deficits start taking their toll. Obama is hoping that the normal cyclical economic highs and lows make him look like a hero and the ignorant public will buy into his "role" in the recovery. Obama only sounds more intelligent than the last pres . . . .in reality Obama if far more regressive.

I think what scares me the most is that I don't feel like the money being spent is being spent to develop businesses. Businesses are the lifeblood of a strong economy. They are the entities that produce value and jobs and all the money for the government to spend. Its sort of like what Jesus said "Give a man a fish and he has a meal. Teach him to fish and he can feed himsellf for life." You have to empower people to start sustainable businesses so that value can start being produced again.

What bothers me so much about Obama is that he thinks the government knows how to distribute money the best. We now have thousands of years of economic history that tell us that free markets with effective regulation and oversight are the most effective method for solving problems, discovering appropriate prices and allocating funds efficiently. Our society is too complicated for a single entity to decide how and where money should go. We need government to enable individuals to start and run businesses that can discover what to make and how much to make of it and how much to charge for it in a free market.

I guarantee if you had set up regional small business loan stations, we would have gotten something from that massive infusion of cash that was the reimbursment checks that were sent out last year!

When you own something, you treat it better and you work hard to keep it up. Its this same fact that shows why government run business does not work. As soon as the government owns it, you've just got hired hands – not owners of businesses. If Obama keeps taking away incentives for businesses to grow and for people to innovate in his quest to destroy the "fat cat" executives, he will destroy the spirit of american innovation that has made us the economic power we are today, EVEN IN THE SORRY STATE THAT OUR ECONOMY IS TODAY.

Obama is an idealist. He's a dreamer and his message of hope is wonderful. I like him very much as a person. But what he doesn't understand is that our capitalist system has given billions of people the opportunity to pursue dreams that were impossible in socialist countries. That's why they came here! My family, like most came here for a better life and built a business that lead to a lifestyle which they could have never achieved back home!

Also, Obama has shown that he does not understand the intricacies of the market. For example, when Chrysler was sold to Fiat, the bond holders that Chrysler owed money to basically got screwed. The thinking in the administration was: "lets let the rich jerk bondholders get a taste of some hardship – who cares about them." Well, those rich jerk bondholders happened to be an organized group of teacher, police and firefighter pensioners. A lot of small investors had been organized into a group that served as a bond holder of chryslers! So, instead of screwing a fat cat executive or a rich old jerk, Obama helped erode confidence in normal market mechanics and left new bondholders wondering if the government might do the same to them. Actions like this erode the integrity of the system! If his goal is socialism – he is well on his way there.

I for one, am very concerned about where this country is headed and for the first time am considering moving!

Liberal apologist? This guy is criticizing the Obama administration and yet folks on the board think that he's a liberal apologist? Actually, what he' s saying is right on the money: we have no manufacturing base hence reducing mainstream jobs, the stimulus money is not being used where it should be thus rendering it ineffecual, and trade with China must be recalibrated. notamused, did you even read this article prior to posting?

Jared you hit the nail on the head! You people are crazy if you think this thing is going to work! I can't believe America is filled with such morons!

Where were all the voices during the Bush Administration when we were getting into this economic mess in the first place? Out buying your "big" toys probably.

It is the prevailing position of most Americans to blame Bush for all the economic woes, but that is misguided. I hate being an apologist for the last president, but in fairness and in fact Bush's greatest fault was spending money like a liberal and not a conservative.

The financial manipulations that created a house of cards were in effect as far back as 1987 when dirivitives caused the market meltdown. What has happened is that technology has made the markets much more volitale. Remember, just before President Clinton left office the economy went into a recession caused by the Dot.com bubble and the Y2K fears.

What happened with Bush was the housing bubble fueled by subprime mortgages combined with an explosion in gas prices. When gas hit $4 a gallon, we as a family cut out all unnecessary travel and by extension non essential spending.

Many people called Bush the oil man and blamed the raise in the cost of gas on him feeding his buddies, but we all know now that it was the Hedge Funds buying oil futures that drove up prices (like with housing prices) it did my heart good to seem the have to eat the over priced oil. We need to reform margin requirements for commodities. You can control a 1000 barrels of oil for 60days for $100. If you raised that to $250 you would cut out much of hedge fund speculation

First it was not Bush who got us into this recession. It was the housing boom that started under Clinton that started this recession. Giving loans to almost everyone who applied knowing that most of them would not be able to afford the payments.

Second the Congress who makes all the decisions ( a president can not make a law) was democrat controlled from 2006. It had nothing to do with Bush.

Third before they passed this $787 billion dollar stimulus they should have read it and worked out the spending better. They were given 4 hours to read 1000 pages. They did not have any chance to preform any checks and balances.

For all you Obamabots out there: Will you still use the "Obama inherited a disaster from Bush" excuse in 4 years? 8 years? Forever? What will you come up with then? IT IS OBAMA'S ECONOMY...TIME TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Of course, this is the hardest thing for a liberal – they always seek to blame everyone but themselves and cry victim and demand a handout. Sick sick sick.

One of the smartest takes on fixing the economy yet! If you pushed it down to state and local and required them to spend it, they could kick off a whole host of contracts which would put a lot of people back to work. Brilliant.

No President since Nixon moved the US off the gold standard has meaningfully addressed the continuous flight of capital globally while most of its national workforce is geographically restricted to a few hundred mile radius. Moving products to foreign nations that have trade restrictions on US manufactured goods has guaranteed much longer times to get from recession to economic recovery. Structurally, until we have the political courage to confront China, India, Brazil and other developing countries on fair trade, we are dooming our middle class to long-term extinction. Government must focus on regulating some of the negatives of global capitalism to avoid the perpetual race to the bottom on standards of living experiencedby "losing" countries.

And if anyone out there still wonders what these economic woes and uncertainty are doing to this country, read these comments. Divides along political and racial lines are starting to fracture along class, income and gender lines as well.

We needed a President ready to lead from day one, to roll up her sleeves and fix another Bush mess and to have the political courage to do it right away. Instead of wasting trillions of our tax dollars on bailing out those at the top waiting for the money to trickle down in the form of jobs and opportunity (Obama's failed plan) the money should have been pumped directly into communities in the form of a 21st century version of the GI Bill or New Deal programs. Without the middle class driving the economy with consumer spending, jobs aren't going to rebound and none of us have time to wait around to see what this "new" economy Obama pledges to lead America into will involve.

Mend the US economy as we knew it in the 1990s, don't end it in favor of the unknown.

Common sense...a rarity in this town.

Wasn't it the republican's that didn't want money to go to school construction and other "shovel ready" projects? I knew Obama should not have caved for this. And then, with all the concessions thrown to the GOP, NOT A SINGLE GOP HOUSE REP VOTED for this bill.

The problem with China is not the trade imbalance and tarriffs. The REAL problem with China is they hold a TREMENDOUS amount of our debt (read TARP spending, and all of our spending over the last several decades). We RELY on them to buy US Treasury Bonds to finance the money Obama is giving away. So we are beholding to China on two fronts – one, we NEED them to buy our debt so Obama can give it away, and two – if they stop buying our debt and want to cash in the Treasury Bonds they own we're SCREWED. This country will cease to exist as we no it, and we will all be working for the Chineese.

Funny... this guy can predict that Obama's stimulus won't work, but where was he when we needed a prediction that the depression and crash of the economy was coming??? Right....

Even the weathermen and women on TV are more accurate than economists are... What great jobs to have!! What a joke....

You can be very WRONG and still keep your job!!

These people who are the die hard Obama supporters need to ask themselves, very honestly, why? Is it because he is percieved as the anti Bush or do you really, honestly believe that he is infallable. Judging from the reader comments, I would venture to say it is because he is not Bush. It is so silly and very dangerous. Forget Bush. Forget the Republican bashing. And definately don't believe everything you read. Think. Think about the repercussions of the current policies. This is not a defense of the Republicans or the Bush Presidency. This is about now. This is about what is really going on with our government and society as a whole. Think about the philosophies behind the policies. Is that what you want America to be?

This is Obama's problem, were working with his solution. Pointing fingers at previous presidents does nothing but deflect attenion away from "Obama's Stimulus Package". Remember Obama predicted unemployment peaking at 8%, were now at 9.6% and he stated we should expect to see futher uptick over the coming months. Herbert Hoover me thinks.

The Economist isn't related to this article. They did back Bush in 2000, but back then Bush sold himself as a progressive who was identical to Al Gore. What a lie that was.

Anyways, the article is right. We need more stimulus that goes to infrastructure and jobs. This tax cut nonsense is just that. And all these armchair right wingers can take their pedestrian views and shove 'em.

Tyrone, It is moronic individuals like yourself who elected this retard who has no clue about basic economic principles. The stimulus is an awful idea, the way the money is allotted is sending us in the same direction Japan headed durring their lost decade. If the president had any interest in opening a book and seeing that durring that same time sweden came out of the same economic crisis in 2 years by first allotting money and correcting the problems with business and the banks. But that would require the president to admit that this problem was caused just as much by greedy americans who couldn't spend responsibly as by the banks and big business we'd like to blame. If he could stop for one minute letting politics and public perception control his actions, he may be able to do the right thing. but he hasn't shown that yet

I really don't understand this bailout strategy where we (the public) reward failed business practices. If we've got extra money laying around, perhaps we give it to the successful banks and corporations to enable them to buy up the failed ones and run them properly.

I think Morici is accurate in stating that the "stimulus" needs to get into functional hands vice getting squirted into the bureaucracy. Unfortunately, this President is very good at the quick fix band-aid, but not very look at taking a substantial look at a problem. Our trade imbalance with China is ridiculous and its continuing to spiral out of control...NOTHING is made in America anymore. When a nation fails to produce, they fall victim to those who do!

Americans would need to be prepared to truly suck it up for a few years to get us back on track, but that doesn't win anyone an election.

This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Creating jobs just for the sake of creating jobs isn't going to help the economy. We need to increase our productive capacity by creating goods and services that can serve the rest of the world. That's how he became the largest creditor nation by the 1980's.

However, I'm surprised to see a negative article about Obama on CNN. It's a refreshing "change".

More finger pointing and no fixing. EVERYONE in the country is to blame for this situation, not just the government. How many of you have written your opinion to your local government? How many of you have used your constitutional avenues of approach to express your opinion? You think giving money to local governments is a waste? You are right, it is a waste because the public knows the issues, but they do not do anything to communicate that to the mayors and governors. Before you join in and start bashing everyone but yourself, why don't you take the time to learn what options you have and exhaust all opportunities first? When everyone rises up and approaches the government in legal manners and then the government ignores them, THAT is when you can start complaining.

Finally someone has something intelligent to say about the root of the problem: China. too bad it is too late. Please review the debate in the U.S. Congress in 1994 regarding Most Favored Nation trade status for the PRC. Look at the promises that were made if we granted MFN and the trade/manufacturing statistics existing at that time. We were to gain access to their markets which would create "millions" of "high-paying" jobs here; remember? They were going to cooperate on missile and nuclear technology proliferation, they were going to help with North Korea and the environment. They were going to respect human rights, the distinct culture of Tibet and eventually democratize. All rubbish. We gave them the free trade access while their markets remained rigged and largely closed, we brought them into the WTO. What did we get in return? Huge trade deficits that have de-industrialized our heartland, stagnated our wages, transferred our technology and modernized their military not to mention copyright violations on a grand scale. The Memorandum of Agreed Framework signed with North Korea in 1994 was a farce; they now have a Chines assisted nuclear weapons program. The PRC supports the world's most odious regimes. They prevent action in the Security Council to stop genocide in Darfur, they are the largest trading partner of the military dictatorship in Myanmar, they support Robert Mugabe in Mozambique, they have assisted and provided cover for Iran and they lock up resource contracts all through Hugo Chavez allied South America; the Monroe Doctrine be dammed. As an added benefit, they used their trade obtained dollar surpluses to buy us lock stock and barrel. They now control the value of the dollar and our long-term interest rates. The Republicrat or Democan bankruptcy and ruin of our democratic republic has been going on for a long time over several administrations. The sellout is complete and our doom awaits us. Treason is most assuredly bi-partisan and it doesn't make one a "nitwit" to point it out.

And letting the big banks repay the stimulus loans and letting them pay the government interest proved to be poor decision-making, too. It would have been better to let the banks keep the money in the form of investment accounts to invest in American industry, accounts that could be sold during inflationary times. Right now, we need money IN CIRCULATION, we shouldn't take it all out for big banker convenience. Tampa is drying up and about to blow away so many shops have closed. It is really alarming.

I am not a Republican or Democrat . Neither party represents the vast majority of people in this country since they are polarized too far left and right. That said I am a small businesman manufacturer. 80 % of all employment in the private sector is by small business. All stimulous money went to large financial businesses, manufacturers i.e. car companies(unions) and other state government agencies. This is and has been the problem with Washington for a long time. I have seen no change and if anything it is much worse with special interest groups now running Washington. Money does not grow on trees it is created by the prodcution of goods and services in the private sector. Once and only once the money/wealth is created by private enterprize can it be spent on government services, highways etc. Basic economics dictates that all goverment spending is an expence paid from this generation of wealth by the private sector of which again 80% is genrated by small business. This government is about to kill the small business in this country by drowning us in regulations and debt .

This contrived well thought out non-Obama plan is spooky. This guy is just the mouth piece for the dead fish tactic guy. And he is just the tactic guy for some GE type guy. Which those few businesses are getting all of our money. This is going to fail!

Senators have said in court that the government has only spent 10% of the stimulus. According to the figures put in place before hand, the stimulus wasn't even supposed to reduce unemployment until the 4th qt.

Well said, Jared. Trouble is, all the people caught in la la land won't read past your second sentance. Here's hope that more and more people are slowly waking up to reality and seeing through the scam that is Obama bin Lyin'.

I heard you can't spend your way out of debt, and that the same holds true for a recession. Seems logical to me, which then means that the entire concept behind the so-called "stimulus" is a sham.

To be completely honest, this is a simple recession, triggered by the housing "crisis", but the effect this has had on our nation's economy would have occurred anyway, due to globalization.

When a wealthy, manufcaturing country such as ours was, begins to outsource, trade and send abroad all the work that used to be performed domestically, it's like taking water out of one glass and pouring it into another. There's still only so much water (i.e. consumer demand), and now you have to take from one and provide to another (like China, but then there's Mexico, India, etc.) so you have a lot of glasses, none of which are full. This is the new world order. Get used to it.

All of these people making blanket statements "I'm tired of the greed of the greediness of the far right in this country." and "This liberal lie that the “Bush Tax Cuts Cause The Deficit” is unsupported by any facts."
are clueless. It's not about Democrats and Republicans. We've had presidents from both parties and we've had Congresses controled by both parties. Both have done and equally poor job. The fact of the matter is that these people are politicians first and foremost. And what politicians do best is try to get re-elected by any means necessary. That means, giving the most money to the people with the most influence to help them get re-elected. What is needed is to make being a politician more of a job and not so much a highly lucrative lifestyle. That way, the people who run for office are more likely to actually care about the state of the country and not about the best way to get re-elected so they can keep their cushy, high-paying, perk-filled, postitions. It is only July 2009 and the news media is already talking about who will be running for president in 2012 and what their best strategy for winning the election will be.

The biggest issue is that the government needs to stop proposing spending money it doesn't have when the country is already paying for things currently on the table with money it doesn't have. They should make do with less just like the rest of us. Trim the deficit, cut the fat, pay down debt to other countries, and come out stronger in the long run. That's the way it works in the real world, not opening a new credit card and spending your way out of trouble when you're already maxed out on all your other ones The current group of oligarchs is clueless from top to bottom.

A Real Lesson in Socialism

Brilliant example of the failures that are waiting for us unless we get an infusion of intelligence and real courage
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

AND...its truly irrelevant who got us into this mess, we're in it regardless. The key to solving any problem is not just identifying the cause, but casting a wide net for potential solutions and utilizing an open mind to consider our future course of action. This goes way beyond the President...we need our Congress to start representing the public's interest instead of their own.

After viewing posts from above, Americans have not clue. I'm not talking about whether you agree with this economist or not, but just some of the things tell me that our education system has failed many Americans, and Obama is going to spend another dime in it?

Sheeple, get your heads out of Teen Idol, CNN, and learn something about economics. Much of what this guy says it true. China's country as others who spent tons of money in stimulus has their countries recovering at much more rapid pace than America, simply because the lie Obama/Pelosi told you "there is no pork in the stimulus", and most of fell for it hook, line and sinker. China spend most of all of their stimulus on infrastructure, and told their people to get to work.
Our liberal government gave the money to special interest groups, municipals, to give out to the needy....and that doesn't make jobs.

To understand what this government now does, and the politics (lies) is to stay away from CNN, ABC, and most the rest, and read more, and look between the lines. Things are not making sense like 1M spent on the connection between alcohol and hookers in china?...or...Philipines? How about 100,000+ on toads in Wyoming? How about a goody like three weeks after Obama lands his new gig, he has Hillary hand deliver 500,000,000 to Humas?...YOUR tax dollars. Lets not forget the 1M allocated to built a tunnel bridge just north of Tallehassee Fl so turtles to cross I10 so they won't get squashed. Reasonsing, those turtles become flying hazards!
The list goes on and on, none of which will make good long lasting jobs. Where is all these new jobs? How many of you folks are going to work on the highway department if infrastructure jobs do take off?

Maybe you like the idea to spend millions on a highspeed train from LA to Los Vegas so the rich celebraties most of Americans seem to be fixated with, can travel and gamble and be back home for dinner while you starve. Saw an article the other day where we learned 300 huge signs were bought @3000 to prop up on highway bridge projects claiming to be your stimulus at work. First of all those signs are too expensive and not needed to convienve YOU the government is doing something. Not to mention in the picture the bridge in the background looked as though building of it started over a year ago long before Obama was appointed.....its a lie folks.
Wake up Americans, your being dupped....thank an educator.

You would have to be a complete dope, not to understand that the stimulus that Obama sold the country was a way to keep the democrats in power in 2010 by releasing the money then.. All he is doing is buying votes. The other problem is that a large portion of the money is going to pet projects, which require the jobs be completed by union workers, which kills completion and leaves out a large number of American non union workers out in the cold. Class warfare at its best. If the 878 billion was broken down and given the actual tax payers, the economy would be booming again..

I happen to agree that we need to spend far more on infastructure – the city that I am from could spend this year 5-10 million and likely still need more – the streets of this city are very bad – probably like most cities across our country – schools could spend 100 billion across the country – all of this would really put people to work in quick order. many of these type of projects are ready to go and would be off and running as soon as the money is allocated. this only speaks to local needs what about the nations highway system that could use a lot of money and would put lots of people to work – this is much to be done that would help a lot of people in a lot of ways – so lets tell our elected officials to stop the bickering and get on with the poeoples business.

After the fact, now people are starting to realize that the stimulus won't work.Never before have I heard of so much money being handed out with no strings.Bills being passed for historic amounts of money and no one in congress had time to even read it to see whats on it.Seems like good leadership to me(joke). What really gets me is the media hiding the facts from the public and helping push this agenda down our throats.All the tea parties being ignored having thousands of people attend.Trying to shut up critics and people who have seen through this crap from the beginning.No matter what you liberals say, the facts speak a different story.Your president has lied on every promise he gave and you just want to hug him(get real).Now they are preping you idiots for the next stimulus plan.Phase two, of becoming a third world nation but hey, he gives good speeches. It doesn't matter that every word is a lie and that he can't even stay home long enough to work on the economy because of his world agenda.Anyone who denounces America, her dream, and her people is not my president.He is just another enemy from within, you know, another liberal!!!

Hey Jared:

Smart business men are closing up shop and going out of business right and left! They're laying off people and moving business overseas... and THIS is going fix our economy?

Wake up and smell the failing economy.... Businesses WERE given incentives for growth in the form of Bush tax cuts. They still laid-off employees and moved business overseas, AND then pocketed the extra cash they saved thanks to the tax cuts.

We see how well your strategy of letting the business world solve its own problems worked. Once everything became deregulated, the economy has slowly slid in the ditch. It's factual.

Your system does work... but only in your mind!!

I think we are totally missing the mark. This recession was mainly casued by 1) unregulated sub-prime lending 2) Banks unrealistically believing the values of homes would keep rising and 3) consumers spending beyond their needs.
What we need is for banks to loosen their purse strings to start lending to small businesses. That will initiate job hiring and eventually consumer spending.
We need our government to regulate the 'banks'.
Without the stimulus packages we would be at 15% unemployment.

At some point in time, this hatred of Bush should stop, or it will lead us further into trouble. "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." We should learn from history that the Bush tax cuts did work. We were sliding into a recession when he took office, but we ended up with a booming economy despite 9/11, despite the distraction (of $ and talent) to 2 wars, despite the aggressive trade policies of China, despite soaring oil prices, . . . . What got us into trouble were (1) seeds planted in the 1990s via aggressive interpretation of the Community Reinvestment Act, (2) a mindset that real estate only goes up in value, (3) low interest rates, and (4) politics that stopped the Administration's moves to curtail questionable lending practices. I am not a fan of all the Bush did, but I am realist who realizes that it was Democratic politics that stopped moves to curtail questionable lending practices.

I find it interesting reading everyone's comments such a variety of responses to our economic situation but always seemingly narrow in scope.

1. Problems with the economy are probably rooted in the 70's and 80's when Americans decided that going into debt to buy a lot of consumer items on either long-term or short-term credit. Lending practices supported this desire for goods. Now many people are in debt up to their noses. Our insatiable desire for goods and service set up our current situation.

2. Our "free trade" policies are very nice for our trading partners but killed domestic manufacturing since good are produced far cheaper overseas because of the lower standards, wages, environmental protection, etc. American companies found it to their advantage financially to export manufacturing and jobs overseas so they could compete in the American marketplace. This is where our government needed to act to protect American production and jobs. The fact that we have a "global economy" doesn't transcend protecting our marketplace – other nations do this!

3. That fact that Americans believe in spending and continued economic growth as a means of living versus sustained economic stability exacerbates the problem ( we don't want to change).

4. The taxpayers have no business owning pieces of private companies - it probably needs to be tested in front of the Supreme Court. Our free enterprise system includes failure if a company(ies) fails if a market still exists other companies fill that niche and probably to better by learning from the lessons of the failed company(ies) I like to believe Americans are still creative and thoughtful enough to make that occur.

5. The government is horribly inefficient at spending money because of the inordinate amount of accountability built into it's budget system and because it's pretty to sloppy when spending someone else's money (taxpayer dollars) That's a human flaw not limited to government.

6. Einstein defines insanity as to keep trying the same practice or idea and expecting different results each time (paraphrased). We continue to maintain the same two-party system that got us here, even though alternately putting the parties in power never seems to gain the desired results (if you hang your hat on campaign promises – forget it – they are a marketing tool).

7. I believe these combination of factors have contributed significantly to our current domestic situation - SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??????

Peter Moricci is absolutely disconnected from reality. Why these "has beens", keep getting publicized and the real people actually working in business do not? Things are VERY SLOWLY turning around, but they are getting better.

"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of the people's money."- Margaret Thatcher

I am not saying that "Obama" has all of the answers, but by repeatedly using Obama's name Morici is making it sound like some other President would. He,or the interviewer, should have made a point to note that the manufacturing losses, the housing problem, the trade imbalance, etc. were all caused by former Presidents.

Also, as far as getting the money out there for shovel-ready projects by giving all/most of it to local governments, I have a problem with this: both the government of my state (CA) and my city (San Diego) have been fiscally irresponsible over the past several years. I don't want to see them get a ton of my federal taxpayer dollars so that they can be more irresponsible. Rather than throw the money willy-nilly at the states and local governments year by year, I would like to see a long range plan to get our economy back on track, and I think the federal govt needs to be a large part of that.

I don't know what that the federal plan should look like, but I think revamping our education system is part of it, and coming up with long term energy and health care solutions are another part of it (not necessarily that windmills are the answer....I would be fine with more nuclear power plants ala France). I think that Morici is giving a lot of sound bites to make the President sound bad, and not offering up any practical solutions to this complex financial problem that our country has before it.

It's entertaining now that all these people posting comments are saying things like "I would suggest Mr. Peter Morici being such a great professor should provide suggestions to Mr Obama than critisizing it." Haha. Why do people continue to try and shelter this administration from the bashing that was common in the last? I don't remember too many people over the past 8 years saying things about Bush like "well lets not criticize, lets take some time and see how this plays out. Lets offer some good suggestions for 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Katrina." Instead they relentlessly attacked and criticized. THIS IS RIDICULOUS. Why should Obama's administration not be held accountable? I hope the man can fix things, but the fact that his blunders are sheltered and not criticized like past Presidents' by the media is outrageous. Where were all of you offering up ideas during the last 8 difficult years in America? Exactly, you just sat back criticizing. No one had the answers, so you blamed Bush. However, for some reason, now that no one has the answers again, you won't blame the Obama Administration. Ridiculous.

It amazes me how much blame is placed on Bush when the real problem began when the lending stardards were relaxed during the Clinton administration.

The root of the problem is money. Money cannot exist without debt. Debt is money. If there were to be no debt then money would not exist. The last time this country was "debt free" was when the government disbanded the central banking system, sometime before Lincoln was President. Economists are just speculators that make educated guesses based on the past. Might I suggest we just support the President in charge and work toward his vision? Dissent is patriotic but there has to be a point where we just step forward without looking back.

Professor Morici's article is most enlightening, I am intrigued by his comments on China, their trade and monetary policies. Buick is one of their most popular cars, but if you purchase one made in the United States, the Chinese government's imposition of of a 25% tariff would make the cost prohibitive. That's why Buicks, for the chinese market are made in China . This approach requires General Motors to move their auto plant and parts manufacturers jobs to China. Midwestern jobs, moved to China, as a reward for them having manipulated their market for job creation in their country.

The professor points out that "Well, essentially, you have to recalibate trade with China, one way or another. ..It's buying about $400 billion a year of U.S. dollars with yuan that it prints." Their paper currency, worth little, keep chinese products priced cheap in our market.

"Recalibrate" is a gentle term when we need to use another word. We are "changing" our trade policy regarding China until that country responds, limited trade and true evaluation of the yuan must be observed. My former friend, Lee Morgan C.E.O. of Caterpillar in the 80's, would often remind us that the Japaneese were devaluing their yen causing Americans to lose money and jobs. Isn't it time we get out of job creation for foreign countries.

It is time to confront unequal trade practices with any country, it requires strong will, leadership, determination and strategy. Telling auto workers that their jobs will never return is nonsense. This proclamation must be replaced with definite goals to bring lost jobs
back to America. Frankly, autos are still being made and Americans know how to make them. We can ill afford to be in the business of job creation for China or anyone else. Companies that bring jobs back to America should be rewarded with tax and growth incentives. China's reward for building a level playing field for our products should be proportional access to American markets, "Recalibrating" must be replaced in our vocabulary with the "changing" of unfair trade practices. These jobs can and must come back to this nation. When it comes to job creation and restoration, Americans first!

Dr. Alan G. Phillips, Sr.
Bloomington, IL

Of course spending money will in no way fix our economy, it only works to devalue our currency and create a massive debt burden for the future. The only positive result could be a short-term bump in the economy which would still be very costly.

Other countries have had good reason for criticizing Obama's policy.

And what REALLY got us into this mess wasn't the easing of lending practices... but the funneling of mortagage applicants into Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) and then the banks raising interest rates thru the roof!!!

The people could afford to pay their mortgages... they just couldn't afford to pay the high interest rates the BANKS jacked up. The greediness of BANKS are what caused the domino effect of forclosures... put the blame where it is earned!!

some of you on liberals and conservatives don't get it. this has nothing to do with left or right. this has everything to do with you being a sucker and the feds and bankers holding on and centralizing power/money.

First thing to respond to is the BUSH Stimulous was also the Obama stimulus-Bush had major input from Obama on it. So lets clear that up first.(Melissa)-The Obama bashing has loads of merit- He has done absolutely nothing.
The way to fix this economy is simple and straightforward. Reduce taxes by a significant measure ditch the crap and trade bill and the Healthcare agendas until we are stabilized. By reducing the taxes on EVERYONE you will spur new spending ergo businesses will rehire ergo more money entering the system- Nice cycle. This is how to fix it. Not by bailing out companies that should fold, not by trying to introduce new legislations that will add more tax burdens to everyone- Yes people not just the rich will feel the tax increases if they pass this. Do you really think Businesses/Affluent people won't raise the costs of good and services or worse yet layoff more people to cover the increase??
Those who know anything -know Bush's cuts helped the economy and it was Alan Greenspan and Now Ben Bernanke that caused this nightmare.

It is not soley the fault of Bush that put us were we are. The Clinton administration implemented many of the policies that got us here.

BOTH PARTIES ARE EQUALLY TO BLAME, and that is an undeniable, unarguable, fact.

The divide the two party system has placed on our nation is by far the biggest problem we face.

Neither party cares about us and neither party ever will. Both of their paths lead to the same destination.

I thought the stimulus money was designated for creating certain jobs and that was why Vice President Biden was in place to inforce that... Was there a breakdown in communication to the states?... I know of a couple states who act as though they don't know how to create Jobs at all... Do we have to depend on OBAMA to THINK for Us All. Replublicans want small gov't . BUT if you need another group of people to come to your states and sit down and tell you how to create jobs and what jobs to create( ie... security positions at schoolls ant Offices etc. rebuild/repair schools BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS ) and how to spend the funds, how can the gov't get smaller? President and Economist stated the money was to help CREATE JOBS,.. WHAT ARE THESE STATES DOING?
Stupid is as Stupid Does!!!!!!!!!

The stimulus is a huge failure. Go to stimulus.org and look at the projects it is aimed to fund. And anyone who blames the economic problems on Bush is a total idiot. One needs to remember there was a democratically controlled congress headed by none other than the radical Nancy Pelosi, and in the senate by Harry Reid. Along with hteir cohorts named Barney Frank and Chris Dodd they created a housing meldown which we will never recover from economically.

One major problem here is that Obama (and the people themselves) believe that people should somehow have well-paying jobs and nice homes when they choose to drop out of school at a rate approaching 50% for urban youth. How can people who drop out of school and have no skills, limited literacy, and a poor work ethic, be expecting anything but unemployment? This country will continue to go downhill until we have a system that rewards people for good decisions that contribute to the country rather than for bad decisions that drain the country. I have been a mentor for a young man who lied around drunk most of last year, earning only $3500 for the year. He was eligible to get a $400 stimulus payment. I, on the other hand, worked about 70 hours a week, paid many thousands of dollars in taxes, and got no payment, because I earned too much. When the government starts reversing that, this country will make progress.

Until people and corporations get the greed out of them then nothing will ever change. Greed drives this country and always will.The rich will keep getting richer no matter what the cost to the average person.

We are pretty much all screwed. Congress doesn't seem to want to try to fix anything, the previous and current administrations have been failures, and the next "leaders"? Ya well you already know how they will turn out. I'm going to start planning my exodus to Europe. Bye America, nice knowing you.

The last thing the Administration actually wants is for the crisis to be over.

Problem, Reaction, Solution....

Financial System

The government forced banks to make bad loans which in due time led to the collapse of the financial system. The people reacted, the government stepped in with a solution....

Auto Industry

The government places unfair regulations on the US Auto Industry (for the better of the environment, I agree) that make the price of an automobile here much higher than other countries. This in turn leads to less auto purchases in uncertain economic times. The industry suffers, the government steps in with a solution.

Government Intervention is not the Answer....

Nick,

430,000,000 X $1,000,000 does not equal $430,000,000.

You're missing a couple of zeros, slick.

I am a plumbing contractor, in the biusness for 34 yrs., I have not had a job in 7 months!! Perhaps I suck at it but I don't believe so. I do believe the banks DO suck at what they perform, I sugjest taking all the residential buisness away from them and give 2% mortgages to anyone with 20 or more % equity underwritten by the fed. Then we will see some real stimulous!!!

"You say, though, that patience would fix a normal cyclical problem, a downturn and then an upturn in the economy. " that is exactly right. this farcial solution was not advertized as be patient solution. now the arguments a plenty will fester over what actually has happened when this monster turns around, normal cycle, or joke of a fix. 750BBILLION of our money is going WHERE????????????

I think some stimulus money would be better spent teaching bloggers writing skills such as proper grammar and correct spelling.

Morici is correct. China does not offer a level playing field to US companies. Obama's stimulas plan takes way too long. Americans will dig themselves out before his plan provides any help. Obama lacks the experience in Federal government to move things faster. Most people lack the savings needed to remain unemployed more than a couple of months before tapping retirement funds, or credit cards. A two year recovery plan will bankrupt millions of Americans.

The idiot president, Tyrone, was another Democrat by the name of Bill Clinton. Get your facts right.

Nick, your math is as indicative of (and as faulty as) the bulk of the reasoning in this comments section, as well as the article itself. Even if there were 435 million people in the U.S. (there were about 306 million in February), your numbers are way off. Assuming a typo in your entry, even if only half of the 435 million people were working adults (say 220 million) and we gave each a million dollars, the total bill would be $220,000,000,000,000. That is $220 trillion. Now, we could give each $1,000 (either as a check or a tax cut) for a total bill of $220 billion. However, you would not be able to buy a house, a car, and all the other things with $1,000. It would be helpful for each of us, but I do question its ability to stimulate (as I, for one, would either pay off debt or save it instead of spending it). I suspect many of us would do the same or spend it on food and other essentials just to survive.

@ notamused July 15th, 2009 10:58 am ET

"...in any compasity is a smart thing to do"

now this guy knows what he's talking about

You people kill me. The only reason all this is being said is because Obama is black, and for those who try to pretend they are not racist just waiting on him to fail. He may not be getting everything right, but my GOD he is trying to do something to get us on tract besides lining his own pockets, like the previous presidents.

I think the point being made here is that the Obama administration really doesn't have a clue. Obama's leftwing policies are going to leave this country in a hole so deep we will have to import sunshine from Mexico. This is a clear example of inexperience in action. Trying to push the Leftist agenda through while then enjoy this temporary power advantage in congress.

Does anyone realize or care that the stimlus is being used to pay us for our labor. Money that WE have to repay to china!

Our government is borrowing money to pay us...and WE have to repay it!

That means stimluas workers are paying their OWN wages!

the stimulus plan is BS...perhaps all of the idiots who supported it will wake up before we as a nation are in worse shape.

We live in a world of instant gratification and start out with the microcosm of the world we awake to and sleep to. So its easy to just see our own personal view and complain heartily about all the problems that have churned up from the economic downturns right now that is affecting our daily living- that is how our lives are rolling along now-a-days.

I am tired of the complaints from the fan-folks of the popular political parties that shower all the problems on elected incumbents with all the things that are being done wrong or judging their capabilities. Complaining is easy, but do you really know how money is spent in government (at any level)? You'd be amazed how the government systems work out there especially when lots of money is involved. Its screwed up at times so I agree that a small percentage of funds gets to its intended audience while most of the funds pays for the political processes.

What's interesting is to research and find out how the money gets moved around in your state first. Fixing the economy includes fixing how we live, eat, breathe, and not to mention fixing how the government does its business from your local state government all the way up to the federal level. So go ahead blow off steam and complain and pick easy targets to make you feel better (just my opinion on all the complaining reviews I've read here)- just focus on making life better after you do and DO IT not just complain or blow-off steam. Get involved in how your government works (its our tax money after all).

China's economic policy has hamstrung the American Dollar in all its various manifestations. The United States is going to have to bring back manufacturing as the primary means of funding this country.

This guy knows the bulk of the stimulus is being spent in the 3rd quarter, right? He seems like he is putting the cart before the horse, expecting to see results before the action has been taken. Yes, it is good that they take the time to make sure where the money is going. That might have taken a few months, but that is to be expected if we want don't want the money to be wasted.

Very good article professor Morici.
Yes, we need to fix the trade imbalance with China. This is a little complicated. Americans are spending too much on credit, both individuals and government, so need China to buy our debt. Americans need to save more, even though this does hurt GDP in the short term. Yes, bring up to WTO the protectionist policies.
You are also correct about the Oil problem. We can't keep shipping $700 billion overseas. Cash for clunkers is ok, but raising the Federal Gas Tax will have the most direct effect because then even the higher mileage cars will be driven less. One thing for sure: CAFE will not work, so Congress should repeal it, not increase mileage standards.

This in response to Tom:

Learn how to read. They are not talking about The Economist magazine in this article. They are talking about Economist Peter Morici. It's pretty sad when economists in his own party say the stimulus won't work. What's even more sad is that the Obamanots crucify anyone who goes against their savior.

Bottom line, whether you want to admit it or not, the Obama stimulus is garbage. Jimmy Carter Part II.

Atlas Shrugged coming true. Hold on tight.

Nicely said. Now i the wise thing for the Obama adminstration is to get you on board for discussion and action.

Melissa...you are like all the rest of Obama fans that swoon over the mere mention of his name. He's the wrong color and I don't mean black or white....he's green! 2 years as a Senator and some feel he's qualified to run the country? That's insane!! Wake up! He is running our country into the ground! ANOTHER stimulous plan? Why don't YOU pick up the tab on this one...we've had enough. So have our kids and the countless number of Americans not even born yet!

I'm a hard working mom tired of paying for Obama followers who only get off the couch to walk to the mailbox for their checks each month (and to vote for their favorite guy). I don't have a problem with helping folks out who need it but there are too many sponging off the system and it's killing us.

Illegal immigrants? Make them legal...give them each a social security number and let them start paying taxes too. I'm not a George Bush fan, I'm a fan of Amercia and it makes me sick to see the state our country is in. God help us all.

Conservative economists, liberal economists, it doesn't matter. They all agree that Obama passed a corrupt special interest oriented stimulous bill that isn't and won't create any jobs. That's what all of the critics said before Obama pushed it through in 24 hours saying we needed it to prevent catastrophe and keep unemployment below 8%. Obama slammed Bush because it took him 10 days or so to move people and equipment and supplies into New Orleans which had been wrecked by Katrina and an incompetent Mayor and Governor. Tens of thousands were hurt because it took so long. Obama only has to spend money and he's had 6 months? And millions and millions are paying for his lack of responsiveness! Many more than were injured by Katrina!!!!! So take a look at how Obama and the Government have handled stimulous. Do you really want them passing Cap, Tax, and Con? Do you really thing Obama should be taking over Health Care?

OK, so another economist has said that the Obama stimulus isn't going to work. We kept hearing that during the entire 5 days the Congress debated the plan. Well, guess what? It is working. It's putting money into the pockets of the wealthiest foreigners, foreign countries, and government red tape coffers. What it isn't doing is getting to the American public. This man has a point. Dole it out to the states with provisos. We have 50 states that could use the money and would probably spend it more wisely. It's the same-old politics in Washington. They always know what's best for the public. Obama inherited a mess, but his plan is making it worse. When he admits to that and stops throwing blame on everyone else then maybe he can help lead this country back to prosperity. After all, we elected someone who we thought could lead us, not whine about the mess he got. Very few presidents ever got elected that didn't have some kind of problem that needed to be solved. That's why WE pay these people the big bucks.Mr. President, listen to the people thru-out the country, they are the ones who can help you. Not the Washington insiders.

...armchair quarterbacks.....that's what we need more of in this country...but he DOES look so smart in that bowtie...get int he thick of it...then MAYBE you can be a critic.

Look – America is going to hell in a hand basket and Obama is leading the way. We're idiots to follow him, but that's the pack mentality of large groups for you. Government is hard to turn around - but once he gets us all pointing in the wrong direction - our enemies can go on vacation while this country falls apart from the inside. If we are lucky, America will be a footnote in world history.

No one here is mentioning how the announcement of the stimulus package got Wall Street back on track. For those who say just give the money back well then Wall Street will fail. The real problem with this country is that 50% of the national budget goes to Social Security and Medicare. The same conservatives who love to bash those on welfare and the do-gooders who enable them to not live out of a box also don't have a problem cashing their social security checks and using Medicare for their expenses. These old conservatives just want a young guy like me to pay into their old age welfare, give them tax breaks on top of that and then agree there will be nothing left for me when I'm old. Just keep on propping up the levy.

There could not be a more flawed model than funneling money through various government institutions who have to comply with the very rules that Congress creates making it difficult to do anything simply.

Here's a novel idea: give us our money back, directly, so we can spend it, save it, invest it....we have almost no overhead and the effect is immediate and stimulative.

Yes. Send money to mayors and to governors and dictate the areas in which it must be spent. Otherwise the financial sector will prosper and the population will suffer.

@Melissa, I'm forced to agree with Norm. You are an idiot. The health care 'mess' was decades in coming and not created by republicans. In fact a large part of the mess is due to out of control costs on government run Medicade and Medicare. these programs have greatly exceeded even the worst case costs 'doomsayers' predicted when the legislation was passed. The nonpartisan GAO predicts the esame massive costs for Obama's plan. How will he pay for it? Name one federal program that is actually well run, not full of waste and corruption, and that does what it's supposed to do.

Regarding the stimulus, Obama just said on CNN a few nights ago that the one thing that appears to be working better than predicted is bank stabilization. How were the banks stabilized? It was that first stimulus under Bush. So let's review, the Bush plan to stabilized banks worked, the Obama stimulus plan to create jobs has failed completely. Got it? And you want to give Obama more money we don't have for another stimulus. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.

If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

You cannot tax and spend your way to economic prosperity. Stop taking so much of my money, I will put it back into the economy (the private sector) where it belongs.

Thank you Tyrone......it's funny that so many forget that our previous president, George Bush, got us in this economic debacle in the first place. Everyone knew it was next to an impossible task to rise out of this debt anytime soon. When people chose Obama as president, they had it cemented in their heads that he was somehow going to magically wave his debt disappearing wand and the country would be saved. It doesn't matter if it is Obama or a reincarnated FDR. Bush made it impossible for his successor or next termed president to EVER fully recover from his 8 years of mess, just a thought.

"Excuse me, but the Bush Tax Cuts took us out of a recession and resulted in 6 years of outsanding growth. "

LOL.... I mean.. ROTFLMAO..

The comments here seem so contradictory. You want the stimulus money to be spent indiscriminately to create an avenue for high level corruption, so that at the end of the day, the administration will be blamed again for failing to foresee that and putting appropriate pre-conditions in place.

That's the problem when professors depend so much on theoretical stuffs they read in books.

If the stimulus package ends the recession early, America's
economy will experience very high inflation and then tank. If the
stimulus response is too slow then "stagflation" will set in.
I've seen all the recessions since 1973. My gut reaction is we're
better off in it than what may await ahead.

If you want to lower the trade deficit and bring business back to the United States, we need to end corporate taxes. To a corporation, taxes are just another business expense that gets passed along to the consumer, but because those expenses affect the bottom-line of the company, decisions about where to buy, build and own things are made based on those taxes. It's time that everyone understood that corporations don't pay taxes, you do. You pay them in higher prices for goods and services and while this indirect tax places the burden on only the people who take advantage of those goods and services, the end result is that companies move their business operations to other countries and that's clearly bad for the US.

Most people believe that Obama's stimulus is a failure there is no doubt about that...and most believe the reason why it is a failure is the stimulus was not stimulant in the first place Duh!

Dee get over the black thing America has.

The economic crisis started with the housing bust.

The whole reason it boomed was due to risks by those buying a home they could not afford, and property investors interested in making the "quick buck".

It was the Democratic Congress, including Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, who refused to acknowledge the anticipated consequences that the Bush administration warned of!

You have to remember who got us into this mess. It wasn't Bush as the press wants you to believe. It was Clinton who wanted all the poor people to own their dream houses. The NY times reported this back in 1999. Half of these people that bought houses couldn't read or speak English. They got snookered just like their getting snooked now by the left wing morons. Remember, things were going great for the first 6 years of Bush administration, Things started to fall apart when the Democrats took over congress. There's a lot of morons in this country that can't remember this and the press doesn't help to remind these people the truth. Most of these people got brainwashed by the press and Obama. These people will not realize that they got snookered until a significant emotional event will personally effect their lives. The botton line we need independent smart thinkes that can see the brainwashing that goes on in this country.
Sorry CNN, I know this is not what you want hear.

The stimulus plan has too many liberal pet peeve projects, Obama needs to wake up.

After 8 years of a republican president who turned the surplus left by Clinton into a huge deficit and brought the country to the worst recession since the Great Depression, it's amusing to see these right-wing losers try to lecture democrats about how to revive the economy.

Uh, Nick - I take it you aren't a math wiz, eh?

"For the sake of ease, let’s assume that all 430 million are taxpaying working adults.

You give every single one 1 million dollars.

that would come to 430 million dollars.

That would be less then half of 1 billion dollars."

Not sure where you went to school, but 430,000,000 x $1,000,000 = $430,000,000,000,000, or $430 TRILLION.

Under your scenario (spending $430 million dollars on 430 million people), each person would get $1 buck. Try not to spend that all at once, OK?

Anytime the govt has anything to do with spending, it's gonna fail. They never have, and never will know how to wisely spend anything. Signing bills without reading them is like the people who bought homes without reading the contract. How many billions of the stimulus were spent on 'stupid projects'. Take off the rose-colored glasses...this country is jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Seriously, those of you who keep talking about how the government should just give every person $1 Million Dollars really must learn how to do math correctly. The population of the U.S. is between 305 Million and 310 Million, not 430 Million. 305 Million people X $1,000,000 would equal 305 Trillion Dollars, which is exponentially greater than the annual gross domestic product of the United States. That idea is nothing more than a fantasy; it never would work.

Having said that, I think everyone has to exercise a lttle bit of patience here. Everyone wants the recession to disappear quickly, and the truth is that it simply will not disappear overnight. It took years, yes years, for the nation to fall into this hole. I am not blaming only Bush or only the corporate executives; this recession was caused by numerous factors. We cannot realistically expect the economy to just bounce back to solid health in a matter of months. Obama and his advisors know this, and that probably is why they have chosen to distribute the money in increments instead of simply unleashing all of it at one time. If the government just tossed the $787 Billion to all of the states right now, I will be willing to bet that some states and cities will spend the money all in one area at once, and next year, that state will be asking for more. Receiving smaller amounts over a two or three year period will force these states and cities to pace themselves rather than spend the money irresponsibly.

Will this work? Only time will tell. If it doesn't, all we have to do is exercise our right to vote and send Obama into retirement.

You can't undo a quarter century of deregulation/irresponsibility, neglect, and offshoring of jobs–promoted mainly by "free market" Republican Presidents and a Republican Congress–in six months. It may understandably take years to fix especially if well-paying jobs keep moving from the U.S. to cheap labor markets abroad.

All Obama has done thus far is move the debt up one level. Now, not only are Americans still in debt and struggling, Obama has put the country in debt. Double the debt, double the fun. He needs to get the economy started and quick.

They are wrong. The only real way to get the economy moving is giving the money to companies, in either low interest loans or grants. This way they can expand their operations, create new products, develop new ideas. In each instance, they will need to HIRE people. Business create workforces and maintains workforces. Governments of all kind just SPEND, they don't create. If you give the money to local governments, aka shovel ready projects, once the project is done, the job is done and you don't have anything return for your money. Give it to the COMPANIES so they can grow the Economy, instead of paying off your buddies in government and buying $2000. toilet seats.

Maybe it would be helpful if the economist could meet with the President and his people and help improve the situation instead of criticizing it on TV

All these people that want to defend Obama for this porkulus payback plan to gift money back to those that got him elected, are a joke. I lost MY JOB UNDER OBAMA, I worked for all 8 years Bush was in office, and all 8 of Clinton's, and 4 more of Bush Sr's and all 8 of Regan's. YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO JIMMY CARTER, that's the last time I was out of work, and surprise, surprise, that's exactly what we have now, a new Jimmy Carter in the white-house, weak defense, stagflation, bigger government, more social programs, hostile small business environment, the more things change the more things stay the same.

the 24 hour news cycle is going to kill any shot that America has to make its comeback. we have all become so impatient that a mere 5 months passes by and we are expecting all of our problems to be solved. The stimulus may not end up being the success that it was supposed to be, but without it where would we be? Stop the short sighted complaining- and if you have a better idea, start a revolution. Until then, we are all in this together- regardless of party or ideology and we should all be hoping for the best. I stand with Obama on many issues, but when he makes mistakes I will acknowledge them. Calling the stimulus a mistake is dead wrong. Sometimes the options our elected leadership have are between bad and worse- not good and bad.

Most people knew this months ago.

Consumerism is what fuels our economy. Individuals buying things they want. Our buying power has been eroded by years of outsourcing and cheap labor immigration policy. Until we address that, we'll be spitting in the wind.

Remember when Obama first proposed this thing before Congress even passed it? He said up front that it's not going to take weeks or months, but years! He said it will be a gradual release of funds not a lump sum dumped out onto the streets.

This administration is doing its best to clean up a mess created by the last 8 years or fraud, corruption and mismanagement. Don't blame Obama's crew for being corrupt or for mismanaging funds when the last administration spent 8 years trying to hide all the mistakes they made. Our new administration is trying to stay honest!

I love how all these people who don't like Obama blame all this havoc on him and his administration. ...Probably the same people that blindly supported Bush for whatever stupid reason. He [Bush] didn't give a crap about 95% of everyone in the country (only the richest ones), and yet you followed him. And for what? Someone please explain this to me!

I'm putting on appropriate comments but cnn won't let them go on because I'm not an Obama fan! I've done my research! I don't hate people that are Obama fans, I realize they haven't had time to do the research themselves. They only listen to what the liberal crap reported on cnn and major Networks. Watch Fox news so you understand what's really happening please!

This is happening in a very small town living off tourists
except that with the latest depression,
there are no more tourists.
Everybody borrows from everyone to survive...
Several months pass by, miserable,
then out of a blue day a tourist comes to rent a room,
and pays for it with a $100 bill.
He has'nt gone up to his room that the innkeeper runs
to the Butcher's to pay off his $100 debt.
The butcher in turns rushes the same dollar bill to the cattle rancher
who supplied him with meat.
the cattle rancher uses the bill to pay off his debt to the local prostitute.
The prostitute closes the loop by going to the inkeeper
to settle her debt on the room she rented occasionally by the hour .
As she lay the $100 on the counter,
the tourist is tellingl the innkeeper he dislikes the room
takes back his $100 and leaves.

Nothing has been spent, neither earned or lost.
Nonetheless nobody in town now has debt.

Isn't it the way we are trying to resolve the present world wide
monetary crisis???

Tax cuts and a war....this is why W was such a failure

Just trust in Obama, he will get it done and we will all dance in celebration!

"George Bush, got us in this economic debacle in the first place. Everyone knew it was next to an impossible task to rise out of this debt anytime soon. "
---------------

More leftwing ignorance on display. You wouldn't know how the economy got into this mess if someone gave you cliff notes. This economy has become a mess for a variety of reasons and you should actually do some research on the subject instead of espousing your lame Bush Derangement Syndrome for every ill the country faces. The system is designed for boom and bust to benefit politicians of both parties and the bankers. Try starting in 1913 when Congress sold it's soul to the money changers and allowed the private banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve to come into existense. It's a match made in hell. Congress abdicates it's Constitutuional duty to coin money to a cartel of bankers in exchange to spend money with impunity. Rothschild remarked "Give me control of a nation's money
and I care not who makes the laws." So you see, US citizens have been nothing but economic serfs to the government since 1913.

Furthermore, all you leftwing fools who believe any political party is on your side has blinders on. They will never allow you to move up or get successful. If they did they would lose your votes as you probably would vote to protect your interests. As long as your kept stupid by public education and struggling, they can pander your vote and promise to help. Government is the kind of help no one needs.

Looky, looky. The right wing gestapo gets one person to publicly support their views and they crawl out of the woodwork like so many cockroaches. Listen, mein herren, you goosesteppers and your 'leaders' have gotten us into theis mess and it took them since Ronny Raygun's trickle down BS to get here. It cannot be fixed overnight and will most certainly be painful to undo ($$$). Every diatribe about energy or health care that you lampooners spew is basically saying 'don't change a thing'. Well, thanks but no thanks. Change is most definitely required if there will be anything to look forward to for my kids and future grandkids. You overconsumptive, hateful biggots can move or get out of the way because the next election and the one after it won't be good for you. They will only get worse.

And to be honest, I love watching your misery disguised as 'I told you so' diatribes. Let me give you a hint: this will take a long time and anyone with 3 digits of IQ and no agenda will tell you that. The hope is not gone with those that ran W and his ilk out of town, and the change will come in spite of your kicking and screaming. Hallelujah.

I hope there are people starving in the streets killing each other. That is what this weak nation full of liberals deserve. Every time I hear the unemployment rate go up it makes me smile a little more. You people are no longer my countrymen you are my enemies. The true enemies to liberty are ourselves. Parish in flames.

The Banks, Insurance industry and Governments that left them both unregulated as large legalized ponzi like organizations are to blame. Banks and such are by all accounts, run by ivy league illuminati’s ripping the average American off. It’s almost like a sovereign wealth fund taken out of the hands of the average consumer to their detriment. Democracy is a farce if governments legalize this kind of oligarchic-like behavior that is not in the best interests of the consumer, whereby they don’t have a say at all in their pensions (their money) being scammed, taxes (their money being taken & spent) supporting the new welfare state, the oligarchs. As a Canadian who banks in both countries, I can only tout and preach about how easy and relatively safe it is to deal with Canadian banks. The fees that average Americans are paying for a shoddy banking system designed to benefit not them the consumer but the rich, lobbyists and political homage is a shame. I recently canceled my account at an inflexible unresponsive baboon of an organization that is definitely a rip off. It’s their privilege to have my money for the short time it’s there and not the other way around! It’s your money folks so do something about it! Democracy is a farce because YOU don’t matter as much any more. You are legislated to buy insurance that will do everything in it’s power not to reimburse you for what they claim you have access to with your fees. They’d rather spend it on their lawyer friends than to give it to you the person the money is collected for. It’s a legislated rip off just like the banks are!

Obama is doing what he can. He has been in office not quite 7 months now, Bush was still on vacation 7 months into his term... so lets not compare.

Anyway, I believe there should be another stimulus. The money should be given to tax payers who are currently struggling with debt (whether it be house, car or student loans). By narrowing the demographic to just middle incomers with high loan debt, you decrease the amount of money that must be handed out. It also allows you to give these people a fairly large chunk of money ($200 today isnt anything, lets be realistic) to get back on track with their debtors.

Thus the higher classes arent taxed more, they just don't get a chunk of the stimulus, so they also have nothing to complain about.

I can end the recession by the end of the year.

1. Scrap cap and trade and start drilling for oil in Alaska and off the coasts of Florida and California. I know it won't hit the market for years but the knowledge that we are tapping into those resources will lower the price of futures immediately.

2. Cut the corporate and capital gains taxes in half. That would encourage investment and growth which would result in a few months, higher revenues to the treasury.

3. Forget about healthcare reform. Only about 5% of the population is involuntarily uninsured. More than 70% of the population is satisfied with their health care. Why fix what isn't broken?

4. IMPEACH Obama, Pelosi and Reid. They are incompetent and enemies of the state. They wish to turn us into a socialist country and are as anti-American as Josef Stalin or V. I. Lenin ever were.

Do all of these things and you will see double digit economic growth and millions of jobs created by January.

"The same guy that can put a roof on a house can put a roof on a school."

NOT TRUE! these are the guys that think they are big shots that do a school job and have it leak a year later and not claim responsibility. This costs taxpayers even more to fix it. public bid can be a nightmare.

flat roofs are a different game than pitched roofs.

I don't believe its fair to judge the effects of the stimulus bill just yet. To respond to what valwayne said about the bill not creating jobs: if the money is dumped into the circulation too quickly, it will disrupt the relatively stable inflation rate and the interest rate. If that happens, you'll be complaining even more because any positive signs that are arising now will go down the drain with more job losses. Somehow, you place Obama in the league of the Gods, as if he has the answers to all the problems that we currently endure. FACT is he doesn't. He can't tell how the economy is going to shift and respond, in fact no one can really tell (not even the leading economists),albeit they can create models with data that can predict what MIGHT happen,because there are so many dynamic variables. So don't accuse and point fingers at the administration without being educated on the dynamics of the economy. This recession is a product of a string of bad economic policy and decision making. Its going to take longer to revive the economy

"The increased deficits under Bush were due to 9/11, 2 major wars"-Bill Mitchell

And who was it that failed to act on intelligence handed to him in August of 2001 and then started an unnecessary war in Iraq? Maybe if Bush had been proactive before 9/11 instead of reactive, 9/11 and the 2 wars wouldn't have been necessary and we would be building on the budget surplus Clinton left him.

Stimulus? Spending money we don't have? Spending our way out of this? Everyone needs to remember one thing. "There is no such thing as a free lunch". Somebody, somewhere is going to pay for it. Spend now pay later tactics don't work at home in our personal budget and they won't work on the national level. Our current president has a silver tongue and has the wool pulled over alot of American's eyes. Americans need to wake up and look at how all this nonsence is going to effect us in four or five years. What this dog is spending now will cause a lot of problems in the near future and he more than like won't be in office to take the heat. We need to stop the wild spending spree and get back to basics. Our government is growing in a tremendous pace and is getting out of control. Wasn't it JFK that said "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". Since when did it become our governments responsibility to support and feed and provide medical care? Buid cars (GM). Bail out private companies? Government needs to do what our original constitution said it was to do. The only role of the government is to protect and defend its borders and people.

Just give me the money,, I can save enough to be out of work half a year with NO unemployment with no gaurantees whatsoever, I will not waste a dime of it, I will loan it to americans and american buisnesses that play by the book and show equity,,, at very low rates.
And watch the people and buisnesses that borrow without equity or run with illeagals who don't pay thier share wash out.
this is so easy it is rediculous..
If my spelling and grammer stinks,,to bad

wrote Bill Mitchell July 15th, 2009 11:14 am ET

"The increased deficits under Bush were due to 9/11, 2 major wars and umpteen natural disasters – none of which Clinton faced. If not for those events unique to the Bush Admin, we would have finished 2008 with a HUGE surplus – due to the tax breaks."

Are you serious? Where did you get your information, Sean Hannity? Rush? Newt?
No pal, here's the real reason. When Bushie deregulated everything under the sun, the banks opened up the floodgates of credit to the American population. The result? We spent more borrowed money in the form of credit card debt and jumbo loans than we could ever hope to repay. That's is what boosted the economy. That is what filled the tax coffers. Period.
It is also why that boom period was destined for a fiery crash, which we have now. This country had to have this recession/depression. Rememer when AIG and Bear Stearns showed the symptoms of failure? Do you even have any idea why? Mortgage backed securities. Trading debt derived from debt. And that sounds like sustainable fiscal policy? This is why free market pure capitalism only exists in a utopia. As much as I hate banks and hate to admit it, Bush did the right thing bailing out the banks or our economy would've crumbled, because all of these institutions are so intertwined in these shady securities.
Spending money, above all else, is what boosts an economy. We spent like drunken sailors and corporations and tax coffers benefitted alike. When consumers spend money, companies grow. Tax cuts do nothing to grow an economy. If a corporation's sales are flat, are they going to add staff, even with a lower tax rate?
Your problem Bill is you listen way too much to one side of the argument. Quit regurgitating Faux News tag lines, especially to people whom ACTUALLY understand economics, the hows and whys. All you do is make yourself look foolish.

Wow, this economist is advocating increasing international trade protectionism. Doesn't he know that if we do that, China will retaliate. China requires GM to produce in China b/c domestic production is flawed b/c of the secondary effects of perverse union bargaining practices. Further, his solution to solve the problem of people driving Tahoes is to give them a credit using our tax dollars. Forget that! .They made the bad decision and they should have to stick with it. If you want to reduce oil consumption, increase the price of gas and invest in alternative fuels. I'm not an economist, but this guys is nuts.

Oh, yeah definetely is going to failed.

It is already complete failed.

God have mercy on Americans

I think we should take some stimulus money and clone the Roosevelts, Lincoln, and the guy who says if we give 1 million dollars to every one of the 430 million US citizens we only spend 430 million and let them come up with some ideas. If that doesn't work, pay the Chinese and people from India to come up with some ideas. ZING!

It took "W" over three years to create this catastrophe, what makes people think that ANYONE can fix it in six months? Want to talk about a waste of stimulus money? "W" gave his oil and Wall Street cronies $750 billion right before he left office with no strings attached, in effect giving them a blank check to do whatever they wanted with the money. Many of the banks and companies who were given money out of this President's stimulus program have either paid it back already or have begun paying it back.

For those that argue that "W" had two wars to fight just remember, we only should have been fighting one, Afganistan. We've spend billions of dollars for the war in Iraq which was launched based entirely on lies perpetrated by "W" and his buddy Mr. Cheney. We had no right, we had no reason, and over 4,300 brave American men and women have paid with their lives. All of the money we've spent on Iraq should have been spent on destroying al-Qaida and the Taliban, and NOT ONE CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD would have faulted us for doing so. "W" couldn't find bin Laden and needed a political victory to ensure his re-election, so he concocted a pack of lies about Iraq having ties with al-Qaida and possessing weapons of mass destruction.

He and Mr. Cheney should be brought up on charges and thrown in prison.

You know what I am tired of? You lot crying because the Republicans want "money for oil companies" or Democrats want "big government." Partisan politics was a priority for the founding fathers so the minority could have their input, but this is just sad! Pointing fingers at one another, crying like little babies.

And for you people who did not want Obama in Office, guess what? Tough luck! I was neither a supporter for Obama nor McCain in the Presidential Election. But no matter who won, the successor will still be MY president. Our President!

I typically do not criticize people like this, only for the fact that I have longed believe people's opinions should be valued. But ... pointing fingers at one another saying "HE DID IT! BUSH WAS THE ONE WHO PUT US IN THIS MESS" Okay, yeah I know. I am someone who is largely in debt right now with education loans, working my way through college. I have been affected by the slumps of our economy. Everyone has! Everyone has the right to be concern where they are going to get their next course of meal for his/her family; how they are going to pay off their electricity bill; how to pay off their mortgage payments.

Now is not the time to be pointing fingers at each other. Now is the time for everyone to go to their computers or get pen and paper, to write to their congressmen about what sort of situation they are in right now. Complain to your congressmen. You voted for them.

Dissolve the federal government !!

All legislation to be created at the state level......that legislation is then voted on by the populous twice a year,.... instead of "after" a politician seeks re-election.

TERM LIMITS FOR ALL POLITICIANS !!!!!!!!

The United States has turned into a giant cow utter that the corrupt, immoral elite are sucking dry!!!

This economist is trying his best to defend gov't interevention in free markets and he sounds like a clown. Gov't interevention ALWAYS messes things up. BO apparently was asleep or attending rev racists' sermons during his economics classses in college. He never learned that valuable lesson.

Liberals hate America and they most certainly HATE capitalism. They spend their lives trying to destroy both.

Funny, we had 5 years of GDP growth of around 3% (historically in the good to very good range) and nobody said boo about the economy. Now democrats in their usual contorted and distorted view of history (like JFK was a great president) like to say that the economy was awful during all eight years of GWB. Many of you dems probably profited from the housing boom. If it was so bad and awful give back the money you made.

Obama set the bar as to expectations with regard tothe stimulus. He was wrong. Axelhead was wrong. Emmanuel was wrong. And when employers are required to pay for health care of all of their employees or face fines and penalties you will be out of a job because companies will start to close and layoff to make up costs. Businesses are in business to make money – not to employ you or feed your family. Get that through your empty heads, democrats.

Melissa July 15th, 2009 11:32 am ET
The stimulus is NOT a fraud. I’m so tired of people like Dave spreading lies and trying ot cause trouble. But then, thats the Republican way, isn’t it. Someone muzzle these people before they start a civil war.

Sounds like Melissa is a hard core liberal, MUZZLE EVERYONE THAT DOES NOT AGREE WITH ME. What happened to free speech Melissa, I guess that only applies if you agree with YOU or the current president. The FACT is Obama could do ANYTHING and you would defend him, because YOU voted for him and YOU couldn't be WRONG!!! Next stop, Dictatorville

If China has a 25% tariff on our goods and they manipulate their currency to track the dollar, why doesn't the WTO crack down on them. Every time we try to impose a tariff on Chinese goods, China complains to the WTO. Until they stop manipulating the yuan, we should slap a huge tariff on their imports. That'll bring the jobs back to the states, but unfortunately would also increase prices for everything.

In Economics 2 + 2 doens't always equal 4. There are so many factors that effect an economy that it's impossible to point to just 5 to 10 things and say "if we fix this, everything will be fine." That's why it is called the Soft Science.

Have you ever taken a bucket of water out of the deep end of a pool and poured it in the shallow end? That is exactly what this stimulus is doing. Eventually what Obama is going to do is have so many buckets of water the pool level will actually be lower rather than the same. By 2012 we will need a new president to put some of those buckets of water back into the pool. In the meantime my neighbor will still be unemployed and my home's value will be as low as ever. Obama was a mistake and will change nothing.

Nick, you would have been better off if your comments had not been published. Some kind of liberal system math?. $430,000,000*1,000,000 comes to a bit more than $430 billion. And where would it come from? Tax the rich as summarized on CNN this morning? In that article, it said that 47% pay no taxes. My solution to the problem would be to amend what our forefathers said about "no taxation without representation" to include "no representation without taxation" In this way the Federal bureaucrats would be responsible to the taxpayers and then lets look at their decisions.

"And we need a real clunker subsidy to get the big cars off of the road. For example, replace the Tahoes with Traverses – very big car but it gets twice the gas mileage."

According to chevrolet.com, the Traverse gets 17/24 MPG, the Tahoe 14/20. In an effort to buttress his credibility, I'll attribute Prof. Morici's misstatement to hyperbole rather than gross mathematical incompetence. I'm sure the rest of his statements are far more credible.

L. Ron Hubbard wrote that when you reward down statistics, you get down statistics; and when you reward up statistics, you get up statistics. The "stimulus" and bail-out funds were donated to failing businesses (bands, big car manufacturers, etc.) and therefore we are getting poor results.

We should be giving stimulus funds to companies and organizations that are winning: alternative fuel and bio-friendly companies, as one example. In turn, the failing companies such as the banks and car companies and over-building home construction companies, should be penalized for their failures by not receiving any funds.

Along these lines, government agencies that haven't produced much and can't show results, should be getting less funding and letting people go – such as the Dept. of Education, and there are many others.

We are in trouble.

When cap and trade is passed all domestic manufacturing will be moved overseas. What will the unemployment numbers look like then.

May I remind you that Clinton is the president that opened the gangway to China. Until clinton was president, never did so many things get imported from china. Is that coincidence? He also made the immigration rules for people attempting to flee from communist cuba the same as any immigrant from a democratic country who is entering this country. Yes that was Clinton. He can't understand why people in communist countries want to leave those places, because he loves communist ideals. We have him to thank for the trade deficit and the loss of manufacturing in this country.

Hi,
Our small community of 8,000 people submitted a shovel ready list for $20M in projects we could have completed in 12 months. We didn't recieve 1 dime. The federal government made so many low income requirements and the Wisconsin Governor didn't disberse any of the funds (budget gap coverage). I agree with all your takes, and they want to make more big government so nothing else can get done?
Joe B.

Understand this: the same people who back Obama and his plans to destroy the American economy and the American way of life, are going to be run over like the rest of us who know who and what he really is. Get your head out of your and wake up.

@mike in syracuse... you are a total moron. Thank god I left there 17 years ago... must be all that's left there now is idiot's like you.

Try, just try to be patient people. The stimulus needs time to work. It's time to get over the need for immediate gratification. Sit down, shut up and if you can't help the situation then stay out of the way for those of us who want to help.

I'm glad someone got the clue that we can't compete as a manufacturing nation much longer due to high operating costs in the US. Not only wages but taxes, supplies, and transportation costs add so much when you're in the US. It's hard to compete on an international level. Right now we're beating out China and many other developing countries in some aspects of manufacturing because quality has been an issue. Those countries' buisnesses are making better quality items now and they keep on improving. They're not stupid. We're slowly getting pushed out of the manufacturing market and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. Also, look at how much of our debt China holds, the last I checked it was over 25% of it. They've got us by the . . . financially.

Morici has some very good points, but then again with our government everyone has to have their piece of the pie or a bill/plan would never pass. Majority has proven to win time and time again, even if it does not help the people. The stimulus package was a rushed deal and should have been known it was 90% flawed from the beginning. Obama has done some good things and some other things not very well. His supporters have not seen the other side of any issue yet. They are so worked up on he's going to be a miracle worker, when it has already been seen he's a flip-flop artist just like Kerry.

you can be the very best and wise economist in the entire world and you will still not be appreciated, or listened to, by the liberal dems. the president and congress KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that we are in financial trouble and they KNOW that raising taxes on anyone is nto the answer. they are seeing the results, but they do not care. they will NEVER admit that a republican plan will work and theirs will not. They would rather destroy this country than admit that tax cuts are the only solution. and that is exactly what they are doing,...destroying the country.

Moderate what?

Melissa,

You sound "tired" sweetie. Your comments certainly are.

In response to Bill Mitchell's theory of Bush's tax cuts leading to a surplus. How do tax cuts lead to a surplus? Taxes are revenue for the government. If taxes are cut, then the government loses money, resulting in a possible deficit.

This problem was 40 years in the making, the incompetence of the late 60's and 70's as an example the oil embargo. Companies are real greedy that's why they out source jobs to other countries with no environmental laws. At the time president Carter tried to have renewable resources back then; but as you can see today we are now worst off then ever. Obama got this mess handled down from the republicans, with huge deficits in the past ten years. Stop criticizing everyone and work together to accomplish something, stop wasteful spending, reinvest in America instead of foreign aid, two wars does not help the matter either. stop out sourcing jobs to other counties.

@notamused: No, but in that price of the hamburger is money for wages to the cashier who tells what you ordered to the cook to make to give to you. Thanks for that awful analogy.

Correct on the China trade front. We have allowed them thru the world trade organization entry to ignore trade rules. I am a manufacturer and have product in over 42 countries around the world except China. They imposed a 97% import duty on my type of products and being a small business with no clout in Washington like GM I could do nothing about it. The Chinese on the other hand have a avenue promulgated by and made legal by our esteemed congressman where by they petition for lowered tariffs by paying off a congressman to support there tariff relief down to almost zero. We will never compete without repeal of this type of influnce buying in Washington.

For once - just ONCE - I would like to hear one of these second-tier pundits offer constructive, pragmatic advice about stimulating the economy and strengthening the nation's financial system. All the rhetoric here is laughable. Yeah, let's "recalibrate trade with China"! Make them eat Twinkies and Cheerios!

Let's face it. When Big Government gets its hands on money (money we don't have yet), that money gets spent on – guess what? More Big Government. Our "leaders" are intensely more interested in keeping themselves in power and personal wealth than they are in fixing the problems that beset the nation as a whole. This lesson is not new, it's something we have known for hundreds of years in this great country and thousands of years worldwide. But the voters keep on asking for more and more of the same by voting the same corrupt, self serving spendthrifts back into office repeatedly. We do it to ourselves.

I love reading these comments. It's almost as if everyone has become an expert on something that is extremely vast and complex by reading the limited number of articles that are available to them. The truth is that even the experts, the people who have the best understanding, aren't sure what to do. Hindsight is always 20/20. But when the stimulus was being proposed, the Obama Administration stated exactly what they intended to do with the money. Why wasn't Peter Morici speaking up then? The reason is because being critical, and talking about coulda shoulda woulda is safe. He didn't speak up because he didn't know. He might have thought more money should have been made immediately ready to shovel ready projects, but he didn't know it. Which is why he was quiet. Because the general consensus was that this had a shot at working. Now that it is becoming popular to speak poorly about it he is willing to take the limelight to help his image. Because it is safe. I want less people like that and more people trying to do what they think is right at the time that doing right is needed.

I don't think any informed person ever thought this stimulus would have a meaningful impact on the economy. This was a spending bill that was crafted in 2 days by 2 people. My guess is for every dollar spent the tax payer will return about 10 cents in economic benefit. I feel relatively certain that 20 years from now this spending bill we be viewed as one of the worse uses of tax payer money in history. Wasted opportunity – pure and simple.

Is "notamused" the first member of his family to walk upright? He writes that 'taking money out of the hands of the public and into the money laundering govermental system in any compasity is a smart thing to do....for every dollar spent on wellfare, only %25 actually made it to the hands of welfare receipients'

Hey Moron! you were going for GOVERNMENTAL, CAPACITY, WELFARE and RECIPIENTS! Can't understand why I don't give any credence to your quoted statistics...

Do America a favor and go back to your job of answering the phones and saying, "Thank you calling Papa John's, can I take your order, please?" while the grown-ups try and solve this current financial crisis.

It seems like facts don't matter here, but they are stubborn things.

-Tax cuts do work. They created the greatest consumer spending boom in the history of the world. We now have nothing to show for it except a trade deficit and stores which are now closing. Bush Cut taxes, but didn't reform the system, which is why we got the results we did.

-The recession of the earlier part of this decade was over by the time the Bush tax cuts kicked in.

-The Republicans are worried about the deficit. They proposed a $500 billion tax cut instead of the 787 billion stimulus. They didn't have that money either. Funny how they seem to worry about the deficit when they are out of power but when their in, there's always money for what they want to do.

-Those of you who think that we don't need to spend money on infrastructure and that tax cuts are the only economic policy that ever fixed anything must live in an alternate universe where sewers don't leak, road are all smooth, sidewalks aren't broken, and bridges aren't deemed deficient. I recognize that not all of this is the Federal Government's responsibility and that local authorities can be inefficient, but if you vote yourself a tax cut and spend it at Target, well, that's what you will get. France, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Finland, even Spain have better infrastructure than we do.

-Corporate Taxes are lower in Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Canada than they are in the US. I hate to bother everyone, but how much we pay for a gallon of gas is irrelevant to prosperity, only relevant to our own consumption levels. Tax cuts should be aimed at business and capital formation, not mindless cuts aimed at a "middle class" which actually pays less and less of the Federal Income Tax every year.

-I have yet to see anyone in either party saying "we have two wars on, let's pay for them'. And it seems the loudest clamorers against any tax increases ever seem to be in favor of the two wars we have going on and then some.

Facts are stubborn things.

Shovel ready, muzzle ready. If you're a 40 year old accountant with a mortgage and kids, how is building a road going to help you? It's not like you can switch career paths and go work on a construction crew.

Get real Washington.....

I think that he is right on spending this money on rebuilding our failing infrastructure and schools. We can begin building sustainable schools, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, and cleaner energy sources that will revamp the U.S. across the baord economically. All those have direct ties to improved economic conditions, lower crime rates and a healthier overall population. Obama's stimulus is the right direction it is just the wrong implementation of it. The people in the private sector are gonna be very cautious with any money they get but everybody's happy if government funds go to building a new greener school in their community. To be honest the stimulus money gave me a job along with several other college students who would not have been able to get internships without the money which allowed for employers in struggling sectors to hire us.

Bill Mitchel,, You da man

I will ask it again and maybe this time I will get an intelligent answer . . . Why are liberals and democrats so dumb???? I thought they went to the same schools as I, but again, I must be misinformed. Oh well, I could take the liberal common statement and blame it on someone else . . . because the liberal typically do this since the democrats are unable to do anything correct.

Umm Stupidty-Clinton was the one who began deregulation and the Alan Greenspan continued it many steps too far. Maybe you should stop listening to just one side

WHy is this so hard for "Economists" to understand?

Go back to BASIC ECONOMICS. The ONLY way to stimulate an economy is for the population to SPEND MONEY. Not the Government, Not Businesses, AVERAGE PEOPLE.

Instead of taking the money away from the people in the form of taxes and other Governmentally controlled NONSENSE, Give an income tax halt for this year. Stop taking away my money and let me spend it!

If the Government insists on spending the "stimu-not" money, fine. Take the number of people paying taxes in this country, Divide the $800 Billion and send each person a check. You want to see an economy grow? That will do it.

We DO NOT need MORE Government intervention. Republican or Democrat or Independent, we don't need any more fingers in our daily lives and our wallets!

Obomunism isn't going to work.

I am starting to understand why liberals vote for people like BO . . . they state and belive the same lies and there is not lack of intelligence. It would be so great if just a few showed a little common sense.

To the person who said (what should we do now )the simple answer is we need to get some balance back in Washington between republicans and democrats since we have no other choice. The bullet prood majority of democrats promulgates bills not being even read by our representitves and passed on party line votes. This is not representative government. The democrats seem to forget that they did not win by more than a couple of percentage points in the popular vote. We did not elect a dictator or vote for a change of government to a dictatorship. 2010 vote republican even if he just escaped from hell.

Bill Mitchell: I love the way you make it sound like 2 major wars "happen" like natural disasters. Gee, if it weren't for those wars "happening", Mr. Bush might have come out looking pretty sweet, huh?

With minimum wage going up again in July you can bet there will be even more staff reduction and fewer work hours available in the small business world. Only way I can keep my coffee house afloat.

I find it hard to believe that shovel ready projects are "hard to find". Considering that I live in Austin and there are still bridges half built but constructions have stopped. In California I see roadways that needs repaving, but they don't have state money to fund it. Especially in a state like California where they are facing a budget crisis, wouldn't additional government funding that would invest in public infrastructure not only help out the countries economy, but it might assist in aiding the states budget short fall?

Let's boycott Chinese products!!!

It doesn't take an economist to see this stimulus as a failed plan. Any responsible adult with a home and kids saw that this was destined to fail. One does not go deeper into debt to get out of it. Our free enterprise system alone will get us out of this mess. Just sit tight and let it run its course.

This is such a filler article! I'm so disappointed to read this on CNN. Fox news is around for such biased articles as this. There are economists that say it's a great plan and economists that say it's a bad plan. Being a economist myself I honestly don't know if it will work, no one does. Everyones points of views are based on estimates of predictions! There are no certain numbers only guess work. This author wrote a crap article based on crap logic, fire them and send them to Fox. Or I'm going to MSNBC for my news....truely garbage.

The labor unions are the idiots that put GM in the shape its in. $25 an hour to install 1 head light?? I was only paid $22.50 an hour for that position but, i wasnt there as long. Dont get me wrong.. i enjoyed the money while i made it but, thats just insane!

This is a typical American economist blaming the Chinese for all of our economic problems. Instead, we should be asking how we can build the same things we import from China here in the US efficiently and cheaply? There are 7.2 million people lining up on the job lines available to do this. They should be put to work with the stimulus money, instead of taking the handouts to buy more Chinese imports that we need in our daily life.

Re: Your stupidity....
Bush's deficits had nothing to do with deregulation. It came from spending too much on wars and not vetoing any spending bills from the Republican congress. That's the danger with one party controlling both houses and the White House.
The massive amount of consumer borrowing and spending can be blamed on the consumer. Also, Greenspan and the Fed were too slow to raise the interest rates after the economy recovered in 2002, creating hyperinflated home prices because investors were buying multiple homes causing true homeowners to pay more than they could afford for a house to live in and to have to resort to creative loans.
Lowering taxes can work. If a company's sales are flat and then taxes are lowered, other business that purchase their services will then have more money to spend, increasing company A's sales, which they will retain more of because of lower taxes, in turn leading to spending on other companies' services or hiring more staff to meet the increased demand.

I consider myself middle of the road and have voted both left and right and I, too am unhappy at how long this recovery is taking but it frustrates me that every scorned republican has nothing but extremely negative thoughts to share. Must be nice to live in neverland or do you honestly believe that you can fully wrap your head around this incredibly complex problem that is our economy. Never before have we faced so many complex issues at once. This guy has not even been in office for a year and you are already dismissing him as incompetent when all of the comments I have read are ignorant and mis-informed and don't begin to address all the problems we are facing, but rather prove you don't really get it!! There is no easy fix, this will take time, so stop the ranting, give the guy some time and if you don't have something positive or constructive and informed to say, please don't share.

Because the stimulus money is Federal money, alll construction projects have to have a NEPA analysis completed before they are considered "shovel ready". There are many State and local projects already designed, the State equivalent of NEPA has been completed, but the projects are sitting on the shelf while local agencies now have to spend months and thousands of dollars to conduct a NEPA analysis. This is insanity. The stimulus law should have exempted NEPA so long as a State equivalent of NEPA was in place and adhered to.

I wish you hyper hypocritical, brain-dead right-wing hatemongers would just go ahead and wear swastikas so we could identify you without having to actually engage you. Your stupidity gives me heartburn.

This economic crisis is the direct result of the voodoo economics (aka "supply side") experiment that the entrenched wealthy conducted on this nation abetted by the ignorant Christianist (not Christian...you people are not real Christians) rubes. Well done, morons. Now just shut up while those of us who have rational brains and aren't sociopaths try to fix your mess.

SHUT. UP.

To do absolutely nothing would have been Obama's worst mistake! The economy would have slided off into oblivion.

To "notamused": What is a "compasity"?

Yep, if enough Repubs drag their heels and resist, maybe they can stop the recovery. But they can't hide what they are doing, and they don't have the best interests of the country in mind. If they ever did?

Unfortunately, the way the US has ALWAYS gotten out of this kind of bind is through a major war. By war I don't mean that whole Iraq thing, I mean a REAL war. If we put $800 billion into a world war you bet your ass we'd be back up and running.
America runs on war. If you don't like it, move.

Any freshman economics textbook will tell you that unemployment is the last indicator of a turn around in an economy. The only thing I see here thats doomed is this man's pride based on his tie.

you want to spend $800 billion dollars and make sure it gets in peoples hands? Easy, without any government planning. Just cut the income tax by 80%.

The income tax is 1 trillion dollars a year and is only 1/3 of the federal income. The federal government will still have 2/3 of their income intact and what does it matter if they collect less income tax. They are already 11 trillion in debt, so either

we the american people spend the money, or the govt taxes us and spends the money.

Try this... use some of that money to subsidize a temporary but meaningful payroll tax relief, pop money back into the pockets of those Americans who still have jobs (for now) and let the consumer – the real engine of our economy – pull this out of the ditch.

Blah, Blah, Blah. The American people said No bailouts No way, but the wealthy got their bailouts, they got to keep the summer home in the Hampton’s, they got to keep their big bonuses, what did the American worker get?
A PINK SLIP!
None of these Elitists in either major party care about the American people, they are all working for the "Progressive Government" bringing about the "New World Order" and these plans have nothing to do about holding the values of the U.S Constitution, our freedom and liberty is being sucked away.

To all of Morici's naysayers, how has he not provided a clear-cut alternative to what Obama is doing? He's saying if we want to expand jobs, we have to pay for it! We can't just put money into the government (Federal, state or local) and pray that they do the right thing, we have to direct this money toward projects that produce tangible benefits. It would be a win-win situation to have people building schools. Person is employed, dilapidated school is restored to a working condition. In this manner, we take the time to put out-of-work citizens to good use by improving our infrastructure. In normal times, these people are more valuable working in the private sector, but right now they could help society by doing public works–one of the few things FDR got right with the New Deal.

Instead, Obama decides that the Almighty Government should get the money in its all-knowing capacity and micromanage it.

Sigh – and these are the same economists that we put our faith in to start with, ending up where we are today ?

In my honest opinion, these comments mean less than the electrons that are hosting them.

It has only been a few months, and the instant gratification machine that has been the media and big business wants to continue finger pointing and not provide anything of a resolution.

No, it was Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi , Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the other dems that got us in this mess!! Stop hating Pres. Bush and lay some blame on Nobama!!!!!

The only thing that Obama is stimulating is the US Deficit ! Trying to create jobs by increasing the size of Federal , State and Local Governments is a major LOSER !! Who do you think has to pay for all these " new" jobs ? Good guess. The American Tax Payer !! You don't have to be an " economist " to figure this out. But you do have to think for yourself instead of following blindly down the road of "CHANGE" just for the sake of something different. I hope everyone is happy with the change they wished for. Wait a few years . It will get a LOT worse !

Any idiot knows that the money will be released and unemployment will be addressed when the 2010 campaign season begins.

Get ready cuz milk and honey will be flowing in about 11 – 13 months.

Most of you are either not reading this article, not understanding it or taking advantage of it to spread republican fear ideas. Both the Dems and the Repubs are out of touch, elitist, elderly fear mongers that spout of at the mouth just to get you people worked up to vote. "Can't wait until the election of 2010" ? really, because the last one went that well for the repubs?. Its not that Obama is a good guy or president, he won because he was not a republican, and after 8 years of Bush how could you blame the youth of this country for putting him in. I thought this article was accurate but harsh on Obama, becuase there were no refferences to the guy that spent us in this hole (Bush and the Neoconservs). Just to show you how far our country has fallen, especially in terms of educating our youth, the first poster (notamused) spelled capacity – compasity. I refuse to listen to churchy republicans which often tout "family" or "moral" values when not in Argentina, backed by angry uneducated people who use but can't spell the word capacity.

I refuse to continue to call this a recession, the definition of depression is "a deep recession which lasts for an extended period of time". Its almost been a year since the meltdown and the only conspiracy I see is when a repub or dem puts people on furlow, the people have to call it "cost savings days". Had this been a real national emergency, or even urgent at all, our government would not ask us to pay them to spank us (giving tax dollars to corps so they will not go under, while those same exact corps charge us higher interest rates to pay our government back OUR money we lent them)

The main point to this story, or at least the one that I had taken from the article, ARE WAYS TO END THE DEPRESSION. He had said that we need to beef up our manufactuing base. The longer our country buys cheap China slave camp trinkets, the more cash they have to buy our dollars and keep thier yuan low, the lower the yuan the more global buisness will seek out the cheapest labor force in the world, which in my opinion was the real cause of the real estate bubble and a major contributor to the mess were in. This is where Obama and his government have completly missed the mark, every country need a manufacturing base, its like the skeleton of any good economy. Without it I fear my childrens generation will need to ask China to build us tanks and Hummers should we ever need to invade Iraq again. ..... ohh he also said the other half of our recession problems have something to do with oil..... using wind and "green" tech to replace oil is alot like using a supersoaker to put out the fire in the world trade center buildings.

We as a country put a man on the moon in less than 15 years (granted we have not gone back in my lifetime (i was born in 76)) I have heard the gripes and groans about not being energy self suporting for the last 25. Brazil has done it why cant we ?... Because we are being divided by fake issues, dummed down by wordplay and spin and spending way too much time looking for the ways we are all different, instead of how we are all alike.

Wow! Liberals cry like little girls when anyone has criticism of their prophet Obama.

All this guy is really saying is that not enough funds were spent on infrastructure. Every single Economist and Republican said the same thing 6 months ago when Obama's people started crafting this Liberal Spending Bill.

Obama, like most Democrats, fail to grasp how this country's economy actually runs. It isn't by offering tax credits on buying new cars, this economy runs when people have jobs, homes and pay taxes on them. America's backbone is our infrastructure, which has been grossly and irresponsibly ignored by the current administration.

I understand all the Washington Liberals want to get back at Bush and his administration, but do all US citizens have to pay the price?

Am I the only one that has noticed that the people that are slamming our president with name calling and spewing GOP pea soup are the very people that can’t spell or put together a coherent argument? College must have been too liberal and they were one of the children that decided to stay behind. If you want to complain about something fine; but get educated somewhere other than FOX.

I do not agree with all the points in this article. First, I do believe that the money is being spent on long-term investments, so we are not going to see a sudden big bang of activity. Second, giving people the money does not ensure that there is stimulus here in the US. For example, if you gave someone 1000 bucks of stimulus money, they might decide to buy a TV that is made in China. So the stimulus has to be global in nature and not just here in the US. China has to invest in their own backyard and allow the US companies to help. They must remove their unfair and illegal trade practices or else face taxes on their imports. That might mean that we pay more for the Wal-mart stuff that we normally buy so cheap... but it has to happen or else we are just mortgaging our future to China and it’s also not health for China either.

Lastly, we have to have an aggressive energy policy that creates jobs in the US. It has to have aggressive targets so that companies are motivated to make the investment and seek out new technologies. There is a study out last year that stated that most reachable oil will no longer be marketable in 20 years... means that we will have to go deeper... farther away to find the same supply of oil that we find today... This means prices will go up, countries will be competing for resources and the supply is not unlimited.

The problem is the whole system is flawed. Consumerism (capitalism) is not a sustainable method for any economy. It will fail because we live in a finite system i.e. the earth is only so big, it will support only so many beings. If somehow the earth were infinite in resources and could self clean all the horrible pollution human activity dumps into that system, well that would work. But it is simply not the case, we must realize we need a complete paradigm shift in the world. Governments cannot solve any of the current problems we have today, politicians can only make laws and appropriate money. This has never solved any problem humanity has every faced. It takes skilled workers and technicians. and the will of concerned individual leaders. Men of science and technology are the only ones capable to make the changes that are required to build a sustainable society. The world is not ready for such change and soon we will be faced with the collapse of the world animal populations and with global warming destroying are ability to grow food crops, we will see a massive collapse of the ecosystem and a population of humans decimated by war and famine. Maybe if there is enough people left hundreds of years from now, earth will heal itself and a new culture, a sustainable culture will emerge and life will go on for the humans, however, nothing is for sure.

I don't have to say anything, Brian said it all for me. Thank you Brian!

"The comments in this segment are funny, and proof that we don’t stand together as a nation. Ultimately if we all want to fix what is broken we will all stand together to realized once and for all the real problem with America and it’s economy. We don’t make anything in this country anymore. Wal-Mart and other super chains like them have forced companies to get goods from overseas. Yes, shopping at Wal-mart saves money, but not jobs, or salaries for Americans. We play the international trade game by a gimped double standard. We allow every product to come here for nothing, but pay massive tariffs to sell goods made in this country elsewhere. It’s time to close up the American shop and fix ourselves from the inside and stop worrying about the wrongs of the rest of the world. It is after all how America became the power it was in the first place. Doesn’t anyone remember Teddy Roosevelt?"

United we stand, divided we fall. Stop criticizing and start realizing Americans have to look after Americans.

The "Spendulus" was meant to stop the free falling recession, create jobs, get people back to work, put us on a road to recovery...

When that didn't work, the language was changed to say "create or SAVE" X number of jobs...Obie is chortling about how his legislation is saving teachers, police officers and firefighters from losing their jobs, so many that we can't even put an exact number on it (I am stunned)...Really?? I have a large group of recently unemployed teachers, police officers and firefighters in my city that can't wait for the next bit of rhetoric to come down the pipe..

I agree with Don Beal, every economist will have a different opinion...Make YOUR voices heard in 2010...You're stuck with Obie until 2012...

And to all those Obama voters that are now disillusioned, PAY ATTENTION NEXT TIME..!!! Don't just go with the flow..

Thank God I still I my Job and Family life before during Bush Sr. and then Clinton, and Then Bush Jr. And Praise God I still have it with Obama. It's not earthly economics that I live on it's Gods econmics. Give 1st back to Him and watch your Bank Account.

We need to tax the Chinese imports just like they tax our exports. Then, maybe some of the manufacturing jobs would come back to the USA. There are a lot of unemployed people whom I am sure would love to have one of these factory jobs.

The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.5% last month. There’s debate on whether the stimulus is working and if it’s working quickly enough. The White House says we are on target. But a lot of people are asking when are we going to see the effects? You, though, say it’s doomed to fail. Why?

Ok, so, WHO is this guy? I guess I should pay attention because he's got a bow tie. He looks important. And if he's just up Rhode Island Ave from DC, why doesn't he come down and help out instead of raking muck. Oh yeah, that might be a public service that doesn't pay as well as being a freelance contrarian.

Personally I don't agree with this commentary, nor Mr. Obama.

The stimulus package, was a bad idea to begin with. We learned from both Clinton, and Bush, that it does not work. Right now people are so scared that they are not spending money. The US people in whole seem to have lost faith in their goverment, despite what people are saying. If this weren' t the case, then we would see more spending.

It scares me the debt that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. While I believe foreign trade is a good thing, to an extent, ultimately it is my opinion, the shape we are in, is to be blamed on all of the American interest that has been shipped over seas. It seems that our downfall started, many American owned business went overseas. If we want to want to really improve our country, we would impose higher taxes on American companies that have moved overseas, decrease some of the taxes on the people, and stop falling further in debt. Ultimately, either the companies will move jobs back here, or they will fail, giving more opportunity for new American businesses to take shape. But this will never happen because too many polictians and corporate big wigs have their hands in this, and are profiting hugely.

Dear Bill Mitchell:

The economists – democrat and republican knew we already had a deficit – the trade deficit – the Clinton surplus of 236 billion wasn't covering the 450 billion trade deficit. The GOP congress went out of their way to point that out to the Clinton administration. In fact, they authorized a bi-partisan commission to investigate what risk the huge trade deficit posed to the US dollar and the american economy.

The commission released its findings Oct 15, 2000. It told both the Gore and Bush camp that one of two things needed to be done: either increase savings or increase taxes to cover the gap. Bush did nothing to increase savings, cut taxes which eliminated those awful Clinton surpluses whichdropped the savings rate that Clinton had spent 8 years raising. Why?

Savings rates come from three sectors: the business community, the government, and the private citizen. During the Bush years private savings remained flat, the business community remained the same, and the savings that came from the government went from plus to minus.

Now the problem Bill is that to maintain a high level income the american economy needs to re-invent itself every 10 – 15 years without savings to re-invest and re-invent the products of tomorrow the economy stagnated and capitalists naturally moved the commodities into lower labor cost areas of the globe – primarily China and India.

I'm an independent who voted for Obama during the election. I voted mainly because I felt (and still feel) he is a dynamic and refreshing change from the usual politicians. However, his inexperience is now showing, I guess. He does not seem to understand the after-effects of such huge spending, especially with money we don't have (borrowed money).

Also, he seems to favor only companies that supported him heavily during the election in one way or another. His support for GE/NBC news is well known. He also keeps raising the taxes of the upper middle class, but ignores the fact that companies like Goldman Sachs (another company whose folks supported Obama) have paid ZERO dollars in Federal taxes last year. That is strange.

I hope President Obama changes his policies and moves away from far left communist/socialist tendencies, and I definitely hope he does not approve the "Second Stimulus" that Congress wants!

Someone is probably accurate to a degree on a point or two, but who?

I don't know why the media is so obsessed with fear mongering and constantly asking if Obama will fail. It has litereally been only a few months since the stimulus passed. I agree that there was not enough money for infrastructure but that is because of the CUTS the GOP senators forced to Obama's proposal. Obama passed the biggest stimulus possible. The reason it is a bit slow in implementation is that if there is ANY waste the right wing will be screaming and demonizing Obama yet again. If it were up to them we'd be in a great depression right now, with failed car makers, failed banks, even more broke states and no stimulus.

Let's wait a couple of years to see the effects of the implemented stimulus and the more accessible and affordable health system before judging Obama. The easiest thing to do is constantly complain, but I didn't hear all this whining while Bush was indebting us to China and wrecking the economy. I also don't hear too many new solutions. The reason China can put up 25% tariffs on Buicks is that we owe them a Trillion dollars. Implementing cap-and-trade could swing the balance back to US's favour if the Chinese refuse to comply and we put in green taxes on their exports. It would also make shipping products from China more expensive, encouraging domestic production.

never listen to a d-bag in a bow-tie.

Stimulus! How about stimulating my economic structure. I am soooo tired of supporting all the peole on welfare! ! Get real, this President is going to take even more money from us working class to support anything he wants. I can't wait until the next election! If we make it that long!

Just remember if anything goes wrong, it's all Bush's fault.

cough cough...

Another administration using sickeningly large amounts of public funds to help stimulate the economy( even in a very inefficent manner, based on this article), letting the bill go to the national debt and let some other poor slobs foot the bill 15+ years from now, as long as it helps our politicial careers. When is America going to wake up!!

I am so sick and tired of people bad mouthing Obama. He has done more for this country in 6 months then the other idiot did in 8 years. Rome wasnt built in a day. And our economy wont be fixed in a day either. Give the man a break!!!!!!

I find it hilarious that the same republicans that argue that the liberal comments don't have any facts, themselves don't use any facts. notamused saying that "one study showed...". Oh yeah, post a link to the study. Who did it, I'm 100% sure it was a conservative think tank. And actually there is no evidence that bush's tax cuts worked, just as there is no evidence they didn't work. Why don't you try to be objective for once?

Nick,

you are an idiot... 430 people could become millionaires or we could spend 430 trillion to get everyone a million dollars. think before you speak. Simple facts, all politicians are corrupt and stink. Bush was a terrible president. Obama is worse. the democrats have been in control of the majority of power in washington for some time and alot of this mess falls on their shoulders. When you have obama, biden, pelosi, frank and all these other pure idiots in charge, what do you expect. Remember, 62% of america thinks this guy is the best thing since sliced bread. The rest of us are preparing for when things fall apart. Don' t come knock on my door at that time for help, for you will be one of those that falls into the category of against us.

I think that it would be a good indication of your capacity to understand such a massive economic structure and the implications of the changes you all are suggesting if you would take better care that your responses were spelled and punctuated correctly. My point is this: the people in government now are the one's responsible. The decisions they make are seldom understood, rarely praised in victory and always blamed in failure. Everyone has an opinion and that's fine, but I think we would all be a little better off if we stopped talking about what we think we know and start admitting what we don't. My two cents is let's wait and see. I know we all thought everything would be fixed during the commercial break, but we just may be in this for a couple of seasons.

Welcome to socialism....

Enjoy the next four years of your hope and change. Might want to call your parents and ask them if you can stay with them once you lose your job and house.

This guy is saying that the stimulus is a good idea but that it isn't being done right.

WRONG!

Increasing government spending and increasing the national debt by a trillion dollars is a BAD idea.

Where did this guy get his economics degree from?

Basic rules of economics:

1. You can't spend yourself into prosperity.
2. You can't tax yourself into prosperity.
3. Spending borrowed money only gives the illusion of prosperity for a brief period of time until that borrowed money has to be paid back.
4. Government produces nothing – it lives off of the productive sector of society.
5. Government will never be as efficient as the free marketplace.
6. The government can not run an economy – Communist Russia already tried that.

I don't know whether the stimulus plan was right or wrong. I do know, however, that the extension in unemployment benefits and the job-retraining money is helping me put food on table and will help me begin a new career after my current/previous industry collapsed.

To me, that sounds like money well-spent. And it seems to make more sense than helping some company give me a part-time, minimum wage job that, in the end, would really not get me anywhere.

Until now, I have asked for very little in return for my tax money. So I do not feel like a freeloader. I am a college-educated man who, at almust 40, is finding himself unable to continue in the path that I was on.

I never thought I would be where I am, but I am doing my best to get on with things. I am grateful for having a little bit of help while I try to lean a new way to make a living.

The stimulus was a joke. It might have worked if the greedy, fat fingered congress had not inserted such a huge mountain of pork. I think the professor was right on the money when he said that this could have worked if the projects were shovel ready like Obama had originally stated over and over. If state and local governments were given the money with a deadline to use it for infrastructure projects by the end of the year it may have had a chance. Instead billions are lost in the void of bureacratic tape and environmental protection programs. Who will save the endangered Americans when Social Security and Medicare run out of money and we can no longer pay even the interest on our multi-trillion dollar debt?

Personally, I'm willing to give Obama's stimulus package a chance. After 8 years of messing up, ruining our economy, our reputation, our standing in the world thanks to President Darth Cheney and his puppet Mortimer W. Snerd, we can't expect an instant turnaround. You don't dig yourself out of a $1 deficit in less than 6 months. It may take a full 4-year term, hopefully sooner.

TOM: This is not "THE" Economist. This is what 'AN' economist thinks.

The article mentioned that Obama couldn't find many shovel-ready projects. That is not true. Utah (a Republican stronghold) was listed as the highest ranked state with the most shovel ready projects with over $10 billion dollars worth ready to go. Utah received about $350 million to fund $10 billion worth of shovel ready projects. Why? Utah is a Republican state. What happened is that Congress played politics with the stimulus money. Democrats don't want to reward states that didn't vote for Obama and Republicans kept threatening to turn away stimulus money. The net result was an ineffective and wasted stimulus package that fell apart at the hands of partisan politics in Washington and a further-aggravated economic crisis. The best things that voters can do is to vote out all incumbents and send a clear message to Washington that partisan politics will no longer be tolerated. Democracy works best if "we the people" assert our authority over our representatives rather than the other way around.

Amazing how many uninformaed people post comments here. Blame Obama all you want, try and say tax cuts for the wealthy work, be afraid of spending when everyone does it.

I'm sick of the sycophantic rantings of the right. Obama's been President for 6 months. SIX MONTHS! You expect things to improve after 8 years of mismanagement that fast? I see comments on here that the tax cuts Bush passed in 2001 worked. My a** they worked. That money didn't make it to me as salaries were stagnant over those years, but the rich were plenty happy rolling in the dough as we kept enjoying deficts and paying for wars! Give me a break! You Obama haters disgust me. Let the man do his job. I bet he balances the budget by the end of his first term or a little after that.

Personally, I’m willing to give Obama’s stimulus package a chance. After 8 years of messing up, ruining our economy, our reputation, our standing in the world thanks to President Darth Cheney and his puppet Mortimer W. Snerd, we can’t expect an instant turnaround. You don’t dig yourself out of a $1 TRILLION deficit in less than 6 months. It may take a full 4-year term, hopefully sooner.

When Big Government gets its hands on money (money we don't have yet), that money gets spent on – guess what? More Big Government. Our "leaders" are intensely more interested in keeping themselves in power and personal wealth than they are in fixing the problems that beset the nation as a whole. This lesson is not new, it's something we have known for hundreds of years in this great country and thousands of years worldwide. But the voters keep on asking for more and more of the same by voting the same corrupt, self serving spendthrifts back into office repeatedly. We do it to ourselves.

This guy hits the nail on the head when he says that the U.S. economy has a structural problem. Manufacturing is the foundation of any strong economy, and the industrial revolution is the only reason we're not still a nation of farmers. Clinton started this mess back in the 90's when he signed our economic future away via his trade agreement with China. We can't spend our way out of it now. It's time to reinstate the tariffs on imports from China that Slick Willy negated, and stop letting the Chinese government manipulate our currency and economy. Americans need to toughen up and work harder to compete in a global economy. Obama may (or may not) mean well, but he's so far left of center, he's just making the bad situation that Bush/Cheney era policies created even worse. Two wrongs never make a right.

Ammad - did you somehow miss all the suggestions in there?

If China has a 25% tariff on American imports, we must reciprocate now!
Globalization helps Big Capital; not people

I'm am so tired of hearing both republican and democrat leaders saying how we the common people aren't intelligent enough to know what to do with the money. Yes, Bush gave us a couple hundred dollars and we may have paid credit cards and car payments with it, which in most people's mind would be a good idea but we are told no this is not what you should do. Don't pay on your debts, spend it on something you don't really need.
Please use some of this intelligence you are talking about and give us the thousands or millions or trillions you are giving to these great minds that continue to ask for more because they spend it on things like bonuses and corporate jets when we the common people just want to keep or house and car.

It is hard to believe this guy, he says "replace the Tahoes with Traverses – very big car but it gets twice the gas mileage". Not quite, TAHOE 14 City, 20 Hwy, Traverse 16 City, 23 Hwy. Hardly twice the gas mileage. How many of his other stats are correct?

Tax breaks don't work. They will be detrimental. But every politician who says that will be tossed.

We have a saying at a private club - Your opinion is worth a thousand voices at a meeting, but worth nothing at the bar.

Stop complaining and start doing something.

First off Tyrone is an idiot.

There are no more excuses.

No more on-the-job training that Biden talked about in the campaign trail.

Obama the brilliant orator makes statements like "unemployment will get worse before it get's better", now that's profound. Does he just make this stuff up or does he reach out to his brilliant support staff to conjour up the well crafted lines.

Obama has had the reins for 6 months now and they're already talking about another stimulus since the first one isn't working. If the first one was working then why do we need another one?

The dumbacrats have had control in Washington for 2 years now and guess what many won't be there for long because all the incumbents will be voted out in 2010.

Hold on Here! The fact is the US Government is the worst run business in the world. The Economic Package doesn't save the manufacturing jobs fleeing the country. The US will NEVER prosper as a service type industry. There are many many Millions from Obama that the Big Banks Blew and No One Cares! Maybe because they hold the Congressional Pension Investments. Geez we "regular american workers" are a bunch of saps. The Gov takes our money, sells our jobs to low cost countries, destroys our kids future, borrows from the Fed Reserve (Private Bank), Mismanages the entire thing, Taxes the people and businesses into the dirt, and we still stand behind these decisions? WHY? Oh yeah, like the guy who max'd his home equity loans and credit cards, borrowed from family, friends, and neighbors, spent until nothing was available: He was only rying to fix his personal economic crisis. LOL

Ryan – you're hilarious calling MSNBC a news network. I bet you think Matthews, Schultz, Maddow and Olbermann aren't biased. To criticize Fox as being biased and identifying MSNBC as fair is twisted and monkey-brained and most normal folks know it.

It is amazing to me to read all these entries and come to realize that the average American does not understand how our currency works, how bonds work and the meaning that whatever we print at the Treasury is because someone or some country invested in us.
To think that things will get better with the stupidity coming out of the White House is like believing that our economy is nothing more than a large scale Monopoly game.
Dollar devalues means that in order to sell bonds the Treasury has to increase the interest it pays in order to make it attarctive to the world's investors; and bonds, as most of us should know, are tied in turn to the interest rates we pay for goods in our Country. The more we pay in Bonds returns the higher everything is going to cost us. Wake up folks and get educated.

Ok, all you Einstein's out there. There are a lot of great opinions here, but how about some tangible solutions. If the feds just sat back with there hands crossed behind their heads we'd be complaining they're not doing enough. It's only been a few months since this bailout began. It took a decade to get ourselves into this mess in the first place.
It was frivolous spending and greed that got us into this mess. The bailout will provide us (middle class) some much needed breathing room to get our financial lives in order, meanwhile allowing us to learn from our mistakes for the future.

Wow Jon, thanks for all those 'facts'. I heard the same 'facts' on Hannity the other day so your parrotting skills are top notch.

But the 'fact' about the republican party and the defecit is that they doubled it with Cheney and bushy's help. If we're heading to debtors prison, it's your icons that got us here. The ultimate republican icon, Reagon was the lynchpin. After setting policy that would ultimately doom California to bankruptcy, the uber intelligent voting public puts the B movie actor in the whitehouse so he could hand the keys of the country over to big business and the rest is history.

Fact is, most republican career politicians don't spend a minute even thinking about the defecity. They are far, far too short term thinking and power hungry. They spend most of their time shouting abortion and gun control to feed the hysteria of their double digit IQ constituents, so they can do what they want to grow their power base and enforce their world domination views.

get the big cars off the road.....BS...not everyone lives in a freakin cul-de-sac and some of us actually need 4wd vehicles

windmills and solar will help....

you wanna stimulate the economy? put more disposable income in the hands of the consumers...and exercise one freaking ounce of fiduciary responsibilty....

really it's a useless cause...the gvm't is so far in debt it's nearly unmanagable

I like Obama, he is the man for the job. However, the problem with the stimulus package is not the package but how our state and local governments are using the money. I see states using the money on their pet projects that requires no new jobs, no new positions on contracted out work to companies that are already fully staffed. Secondly, I see the same problem when the money finally reaches the local governments along with less cash and hardly any money to hire new people and really get something of significance done. It would have been better if the Obama administration had required that each state give a reasonable estimate on the number of new jobs (unemployed people taken of the unemployed payroll as a result of said project, venture or development) will be created. Therefore, the Obama government could have held each state accountable for those proposal and grant them more money only if those goals are 85 to 90% met, and nothing less. Just like we are holding the fire to GM and Chrysler we should be holding the fire to the States and local governments, quarterly, bi-yearly and annually! Look how fast GM is coming out of bankruptcy!!!!!!!

"All you gotta do is give everybody the money...it's so easy! But Obama is incapable of it because he wants all kinds of buraucracy like monitoring that indeed mayors and governors are spending it on what is necessary instead of shoring up budget shortfalls...all you gotta do is tell 'em to spend it on this and that...and they'll just do it."

Seriously?!? is this guy really an economist? Oh that's right "ex-economist". At the same time though, he's right. I mean most economist believe wages, for example, are sticky, but all the sudden stimulus money has all kinds of lubrication that it would "just be spent right"? Most economist believe, based on evidence (from FDR to Ronald Reagan) government spending does indeed work so long as it's "targeted, timely and temporary". And there is no proof anywhere in the world that tax cuts help get economies out of a recession, that's just a scheme to help rich folks save more during economic hard times. Targeting is hard because "the target" it's moving. Timely? Well if the Republicans had their way it would be very late. And temporary? Well, if the Democrats had their way it would be permanent. Most economist agree the stimulus package amount simply isn't enough to make a huge impact. It's like Dr. Evil asking for a million dollars ransom money and everyone in the room just laughed at the small amount of money he was asking for versus the impact he was going to create. There's no way a typical American can understand that what we're really talking about in terms of "signifant dent" in the recession is in the trillions of dollars-and accepting the fact that millions will have to be wasted as well. What Americans are asking for is to save the foundation but not waste any concrete, rebar and labor to do so...good luck. For most Americans spending thousands is plenty and it better come with a gold plate...then again these are the same Americans who spend thousands when they only make hundreds....that makes no cents.

In many instances the pen is mightier than the sword and what goes around often comes around. The demise of the North Carolina native Indians was in a large part due to American treaties and trade agreements as witnessed by the Trail of Tears. Today America has numerous trade agreements, which are not in the best interest of our fine nation. These complex agreements involve the World Trade Organization (WTO) and bad decisions are not easy to correct. The free trade playing field is not fair. The words “protectionism” and “tariffs” should not be considered un-American. Tariffs were Americas number one source of federal revenue from the 1790’s until WWI when income taxes took the lead. We know about income taxes. America needs a manufacturing base covering all market sectors including textiles and furniture. Without hands on manufacturing it is impossible to maintain research and development, technological improvements and innovation, and the quest for knowledge in our higher education system. Our military deserves to have the best clothing, equipment and technology in the world. Thankfully, the Berry Amendment gives preference to procurement of military contracts to American manufacturers. However, it is tough for companies to live primarily off military contracts. The Berry Amendment should be expanded to include all government contracts.

Government officials have readily admitted and documented, that America is faced with an import inspection crisis. The percentage of total import containers that are inspected for potential dirty bombs is relatively small and in today’s environment this is a very serious national security issue. Additionally, America is faced with real foreign product quality issues such as lead based toys, faulty drywall, toothpaste, dog food and drugs. Identifying a problem is usually 90% of the solution. The remaining 10% of the solution should be relatively easy except when the solution involves politicians and our money. The cost for adequate import inspections and on site product quality inspections in foreign countries, by the FDA or other groups should not fall on U.S. taxpayers. American manufacturers did not create or contribute to this national crisis.

When John Maynard Keynes, the father of macroeconomics, was asked if he knew of anything as bad as the Great Depression he stated “it was called the Dark Ages, and it lasted four hundred years”. When economists today state that our children and grandchildren will most likely experience a lower standard of living, this is a real concern.

Great nations rise, experience golden years and then fall. The Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires all have their place in history. The great empires usually do not fall by military force, but rather their fall is often due to cultural changes prompting a decline in culture, a lack of great leadership, vision, role models, work ethic, motivation along with increased political corruption and a weakened tax base. America is facing all these issues and without a manufacturing base America will not survive as a great nation.

I hope Obama is realizing, it's a lot easier being a professor who knows all the answers than a president who knows none of them.

No economist has mentioned what will happen when the 6.6 million (and counting) laidoff run out of unemployment benefits and start getting all their homes foreclosed on, or evicted from their rental. That will start a whole new cycle of falling property values, homelessness, crime, failing banks, more layoffs and more local, state and Federal tax revenue plunges. Where California is now the rest of the lower 48 are headed for.

I am appalled by this collection of rubbish. If ever there was a collection of opinions that clearly demonstrates the shocking lack of general knowledge and education of the U.S. population, this is it. It seems like almost NONE of you even begin to understand our money and banking system, most of you are responding with some kind of nonsensical slogan you read (with difficulty) on some beatup pickup truck's bumper sticker, and – oh, yeah – very few of you can spell, or construct a grammatically correct sentence. Get over yourselves.

These economists got us here in the first place, why should we listen to these bozo's? Economics itself is a pseudo-science not based on anything other than basic game theory. We would be better off flipping a coin than listening to economists.

Nick, with that kind of math you probably voted for Obama.

$430,000,000 X $1,000,000 = $430 TRILLION!!!!!!!!

Things will not seriously get better until businesses in the United States behave as if they have a stake in the US economy. If you want the US economy to get better, buy products and services which are made in the USA. If you sell services in the US, provision them in the USA. If you sell commercial goods in the US, make them here. If you are a business, and you cannot help with this, the current mess is a direct result of existing business practices. If you live in the US and do not contribute to the US economy your complaining privileges are revoked.

wasn't it mostly liberal ideas such as equality in lending, i.e. giving loans to people who shouldnt have gotten them "because its the fair thing to do", that got us into this mess????? So when you harp on the last 8 years you should probably think about what caused the problem, bad mortgages, people with more debt than they could handle, and find out who was in charge of perpetuating those problems...barney frank, nancy pelosi, etc etc. Bush's is responsible for not doing more to stop those liberal ideas of free money for all, but if he would have tried the liberals would have crucified him for not caring about the poor or middle class because he didnt support easy credit, loans and mortgages for them.

Pretty odd math if you ask me. The economy has only recovered 15% and we have spent 8% of the stimulus... Uh oh, looks like its working.
Its time some of you Republicans learned a bit of math. BUSH caused this disaster, and Obama is fixing it. It takes more that 6 months to fix five years of out-of-control spending! Attaching labels like "liberal" to any bit of math you don't understand is just juvenile. Calling things "socialist" when they are in fact helping the people that power this economy proves you don't understand how an economy works, and neither does Mr. Bowtie here.

This guy is an "economist", he does not work the "Economist" magazine Beavis. Sheesh. I normally try to avoid CNN as their so called journalist believe that they already know what is correct on any issue before they report on it. Whatever the Democratic position is is the right one and they will avoid examination of any ideas/realities that may go against what they are already sure is right (cuz they read it on Huffington Post.com!). It all fluff and BS. These folks see their job as to better the world by reporting stories in a way that will sway the ignorant masses to the "correct" view. All the dems' identity politics and big government plans to save everyone only creates all kinds of ridiculous unintended consequences and results in more giant messes for people and businesses to try to navigate through. Take this economist here... "I'm no Republican, but..." big surprise there. BTW, I think this guy was talking about the stupid stimulus checks that Bush sent out. Of course people paid down their credit cards with that $... It was a one time payment! But this clown points to this as uncontroverted proof that "stimulus tax cuts" don't work?! That is a fraud. The only way to move the economy is to let people and businesses keep more of their income. Move out of the way so the people can create oppurtunity! This is how our nation became great. Not by the government stealing from some and giving to others. The only think shovel ready is the stuff coming out of the mouths of Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Let's take back our country and let opportunity happen for everyone in 2010!!!!!!!

You know what is funny. The number of people who post on here and say that the current economy is all on Obama now, and we have to stop blaming Bush... Then 1-2 sentences later blame the Community Reinvestment Act for the crash in the economy, effectively attempting to blame the crash on Clinton. You kids are funny. Seriously. The other thing one must conclude from reading these comments is that 70% of America get their news from Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter.

The New Deal worked, and would have worked better if it wasn't so anemic. The stimulus would be working if it were bigger, had been 787 billion rather than the 400 billion it actually was, and if the money was actually in the economy now (it isn't, and it is hard to figure out how it is going to be disbursed).

Here are my suggestions: Forgive student loan debt for everyone who graduated college between 1980 and now, unless their existing debt is less than 1% of their annual salary. Reset mortgages to current housing values for all mortgages made after 2001. This will keep the banks from keeping ill gotten gains and allow them to actually value their mortgage based assets. Make all existing credit card debt 2% above the overnight rate. Cap new interest rates at 17% for credit cards. Build national level infrastructure projects including fiber-to-the-premises, big wind, big solar, high speed rail, bridge maintenance, and smart grid technology. Last but not least, reduce military spending to a maximum of 2x our next closest competitor (we currently spend roughly 500x) and invest the difference in a emerging technology investment bank and in education. The stimulus needed to be at least 2.1 trillion to plug the holes in private investment.

Nick, that would be 430 Americans not 430 million receiving 1 million a piece.

Obama is all sizzle no steak... doesn't have a clue what he is doing and relying on Clintons buddies to tell him. You can blame Congress for our ills both current and past.

Regular folk can't run too price prohibitive, average american will never be represented.

America needs to start a grass roots campaign for term limits.... get those idiots out of Washington.

Nick – your math doesn't work 430 million times a million is not 430 million – my calculator couldn't even count that high.... perhaps we need to spend some stimulus money in your education district.

Absarokee,

You would be correct if the economy were in an inflationary cycle. Since the economy is deflationary, there is little indication that printing money to provide stimulus would actually result in inflation in the near term. When the economy starts ticking again, it will be important to limit spending and to repay debt, but inflation is not a likely outcome until the economy starts moving again.

Michael- The government forced Goldman Sachs to take bail-out money as insurance. The company didn't want it and has paid it all back, before posting its profit this year. So, bad example. I agree, though, that the government should have let companies who, unlike Goldman, did make catastrophic decisions to go belly-up. Moral hazard doesn't even begin to describe it.

Bill Mitchell- You, and a lot of people, buy that line that government revenue always expands from tax cuts. So, logically, the government would have infinite money if it didn't tax at all, right? The economy tanked after Bush took office on a tax-cut platform. In his first two years of office, he-tax cuts and all- wiped out the surplus projected from Clinton's fiscally conservative management and set new records for debt.

Your argument that those deficits come from the wars might have some merit. . . except it's a president's responsibility to respond to crises. A major threat to national security is literally the best reason there is to impose emergency taxes. Even the most zealous conservative would agree that national security is a job for the government. But Bush was too much of a coward to ask the American people to pay for their troops. Ribbons on cars? Great. Opening up the wallet? No way. Would hikes have been painful? Absolutely. But it was a real opportunity to soberly ask the American people to shoulder a new burden in light of a grave threat. Instead, he put the whole thing on the credit card, setting a tone of massive borrowing irresponsibility that has finally come home to roost.

This economist knows what he's talking about: give people more money, via tax cuts, and they won't spend it. Why would they? I know if I got a big rebate check it would go straight to savings. Only fools will go out and buy a car in the current climate. Instead of giving people money, give them work. Work on bridges in danger of collapse across the country, and schools that haven't been up to code since 1950. And you know what Bill, if people have work, at the end of the day, they'll get paid and have money too.

Everybody wants to blame Bush, but our economy was great under 95% of his watch. What made it crash last September? The Housing Bust! Bush tried 18 times to warn congress that we could no longer give mortgages to people who couldn't pay for them. That whole initative was started with Clinton to get more minority, low income familes into home ownership. Do you people even remember that the last two years of Bush's presidency he was considered a lame duck b/c the Democrats had the majority in congress. His hands were tied during that time.

Also, people don't forget the terrorists that attacked our country on 9/11 and the war we got into in Iraq. Those things cost money and at the time we decided to go to war, everyone was all for it (Dems and Reps). So, study your history and don't get caught up just b/c you like our pres and don't want to disagree with him just b/c he is black (that is more racists than those stupid white supremecists). He is a politician and they all need to be checked.

Keep the gov't out of our business if you want to keep your freedom. Say no to socialized health care, cap and trade, and more stimulus packages. It may sound good that Uncle Sam is going to take care of you, but if you have a brain and know your history you will know it will only bring us more grief. Don't tread on me!

There have been numerous suggestions that the administration should be spending the money faster and/or giving money more directly to the states. I disagree with all of these suggestions including those of Mr. Morici.

Remember that a huge part of the issue that got us here was money going into black holes to line the pockets of people who did nothing to help the economy. The administrations caution in ensuring the money that is being spent is going where it is intended is well warranted (granted the administration is not doing a perfect job but it is doing a lot better than its predecessor). Regarding giving money to the states, first, as suggested, it would be difficult to prevent states from finding ways to plug budget gaps instead of spending the money as intended regardless of what rules the administration tried to put in place.

As a side note, some have suggested that the federal budget SHOULD in fact be filling gaps in the state budgets. I violently disagree with this and applaud the administration for not doing so. The intention of the constitution was that the states would be independent of the federal government. They have their own taxing authority and Washington should not be encouraging them to cede more of their authority because of cowardly state legislatures.

BTW, anyone notice that even on CNN's site there seem to be more comments by conservatives (at least fiscal)? My theory is that the bulk of ordinary liberals out there are just well intentioned and idealistic harebraineds who really are not that interested in studying the issues. They just want a quick answer that is supposed to help whomever may be in need. This would explain why liberal talk radio always fails. Am I right?

Don't blame it on Clinton. That president was a fellow named Nixon. It was about 1972. Certain US export corporations started trading cola to China in the 1980's for clothing. Much international trade at that time was by barter. Sugar for toothpicks. By the 1990's this trading trend with China became an avalanche. Now of course we are trading treasuries with them. The whole "conquer the world by trading with them" is perhaps as old as China itself, dating at least to the Ming dynasty. Our leaders pursue this game because they see potential profits for of "emerging markets". Politically it sometimes works, sort of. Profit from emerging markets, rarely if ever actually works out as expected.

The problem that we're seeing now is strictly politics. Being an economist myself; I, as well as my collegues and friends have been predicting the collapse of the finanical sector since the mid 90s. We as well as most other economists knew that once the housing bubble popped, there would be considerable damage to the economy. It isn't that we kept this to ourselves or didn't make it vocal – we certainly did. The problem was, no one was willing to listen. Politicians didn't care to listen or fix it because it wasn't in their self interest, and the news media didn't follow it because there wasn't much of a story as the economy was performing so well before then. The problem didn't come from "Deregulation" as the media and politicians are hammering on about now. In fact, it came from over regulation. Alan Greenspan kept the interest rate artifically low to increase lending. It came from this ideaology that everyone in America should own their own home, so the government passed laws that required lenders to diversify their portfolios by giving credit to high risk individuals for every low risk individual they lent to and keeping interest rates low to increase lending. Now sure, once the housing bubble was growing at an incredible rate, we did see excessive risk taking and predatory lending by these financial institutions, but that's only because government regulation created the incentive for these banks to do so. The recession that began 12 months was from the Bush era intervention in the economy. The recession we will be experiencing for the next few months to come and possibly longer is from the Obama era intervention in the economy. With all of this high price stimulus spending on low value projects, we are not receiving the benefits from the spending, but we will surely see the costs from the excess spending from the past 8 years, as well as the next 4 in increased taxes. Looking through these posts, many people either blame Bush or Obama. In reality, they're not so different. When it comes to gross spending, government intervention in business, blocking unions (Obama made it a condtion that GM unions cannot picket until 2015), and a disregard for fixing the trade deficit with China, Obama is following in Bush's foot steps.

The best thing for the economy is a balanced budget. Both political parties are to blame for decades of poor fiscal policy. The best things for Americans to do is to become more independent-minded, use some common sense, and quit giving allegiances to political parties. If Americans are going to play partisan politics with each other on the scale that we have seen in Washington, then this country is doomed.

Ryan.... what? The Koolaid a little to weak for you here?

You want true solutions, cut Government spending. Only true reductions in spending will lead to true tax cuts.

This is regarding Bill Mitchell with my personal opinion in the current economic situation.

I believe that Peter Morici was regarding the Bush "TARP" plan, not the Bush Tax Cut plan. It's a very well known fact in the world of Economics that, given a two period time table, if you give consumers money in this period with an expectation of tax increases to pay for the current influx; the consumer will make the wise decision to save it all, knowing that at some point they will have to pay it back. It's not like a Christmas bonus where you feel like when you pull a $2000 check out of your mailbox from the US government you're being rewarded for your years of patriotism. Consumers and media did an excellent job of telling exactly where that money is going. Especially given that people were being scared away from spending (hence the significant drop in consumer spending) by the threat of an even deeper recession. The last thing an intelligent consumer would do when a recession is unfolding is increase spending (consumers and businesses react this way, hence why giving money to banks to loosen credit when they're worried of a rush to the bank and therefore causing them to go bankrupt was also a failed attempt at saving things). Even as an independent, it's very obvious that both these policies have been ill-thought, but if we can all remember briefly the cries from the US public for a stimulus, there developed an unnecessary sense of urgency. We can attribute failed policy to none-other-than ourselves for not being patient enough to develop a plan.

Ideally the government should have looked to cities and states like California or Detroit, those really crippling in bankruptcy and seen if they would accept hundreds of billions given strict spending stipulation; therefore not letting the money slip to useless earmark spending in the state legislature. Perhaps providing Detroit money to build public hospitals and increase school spending (creating inner-city public schools, providing hope for 3-5 years off when a high school diploma will mean nothing as a 9.5% unemployment rate of educated and trained people are still trying to find a job). California is going to have to make incredible cuts to pull themselves out of their rift. Providing to the creation of high-speed rail systems, therefore creating jobs in various fields (tech for the train systems, construction for the rails, demolition for the clearing of a railway, planning, service, etc.). The rail system will provide a positive externality, in addition to jobs generated it will allow travelers to traverse less on the congested high-ways to move from city to city along the dense west coast. Florida is already planning this project, and has the plans written as well as land set aside. Right now this type of project has been discussed and spending a few weeks to set this up could have jobs being generated as early as next year.

It's also to point out, not to play devils advocate totally, but the Obama spending is done just like every other American's... on Credit. Essentially many of these jobs have begun their initial stages paid through with a promissory note for future payment, and therefore the ball is and has been rolling on many of these things. Many leading factors show us pulling into recovory mode: The Stock market is one of the strongest leading indecators, advancing ahead of the curve and helping secure consumer confidence. Unemployment will tick behind recovery, as all lagging indicators do, and so this shocking 9.5% isn't very shocking at all. It's going to lag the recovery, whereas temporary job increases act as a leading indicator. And reports of increases in temporary job development stretch from Baltimore to Detroit, providing hope that a recovery is becoming.

I certainly hope that nobody is praying for another economic recovery, it's so late in the cycle that the markets have been doing a very good job of correcting themselves (+1 for Adam Smith) if this recovery is indeed occurring and the stimulus packages have done nothing. In fact, a late addition to the stimulus package will only develop overproduction (again missing equilibrium), and will lead to a drop in productivity that will create more concern as the aggregate markets move toward equilibrium. We as a population need to realize that we're basing the benefits of stimulus on questionable grounds surrounding the pullout of the great depression and the emergency construction projects. Realistically, the second world war is, to most people (and most economists) the driving force of pulling us out of our depression. So it's very questionable that any stimulus is overly beneficial because it's rarely been the glorious thing that the US has been portraying this stimulus to be.

Tyler Parks
University of Richmond

Bush. Yes we blame him. Bushie, Inc. eradicated any number of regulations, and perhaps abdicated their constitutional responsibility by choosing not to enforce any remaining regulations . They ran up trillions of deficit spending. They encouraged the outsourcing of technology and engineering jobs to cut costs – actually admitted in February 2003. The saved costs were most likely passed on to criminals and shareholders in the executive suite. Those of us who worked in technology and engineering lost our jobs, careers, homes, and health insurance. No doubt some have lost their families. Investors bought those foreclosed homes and flipped them for huge profits to people buying with ARM's. With their profits, our investor friends either invested with Bernie, or bought into mortgage backed derivatives. That buzzard came home to roost in September 2008. How convenient. How very fittingly convenient. Congratulations. Bushies, you did such a wonderful job. We would all be blithering idiots not to blame Bushie, Inc. and their neo-con-republican friends. They caused this mess intentionally. Ok – maybe there is a 0.05 percent chance they were really not smart enough to understand the cause and effect of their actions. Even if that is actually true, at some point they had to become aware they were in far over their heads. When that realization came all of them including Dick should have resigned. So, yes, we blame them. And I think their friends who helped get them elected have reaped their just rewards. Laugh. Laugh Out Loud! Roll On The Floor Laughing! Maybe when we get tired of laughing the great Republican Depression of 2010 will finally be over.

Questions.

1) What's better for the economy? Cheap and plentiful energy for all or an expensive and scare supply.
2) In the end, who pays corporate taxes? The people or the companies.
3) What is better to help companies hire workers and lower unemployment? High corporate taxes or low.
4) What stimulates the economy better? Having more or less money in your paycheck after taxes.
5) What is the worlds "ideal" CO2 concentration? 0, 100, 200, 300, 1000.

Obviously if you have at least some intelligence the answers are

1) Cheap and plentiful energy for all
2) The people, as the costs are passed on in higher prices for goods the company manufactures.
3) Low – the more a company makes, the lower the cost of goods and the higher the demand and therfore the more it sells and the more people it has to hire
4) More money in your paycheck... you can then buy more goods that generate sales taxes for states and increase employment rates as demand for goods increases.
5) The answer is not yet known. However, consider this... at 0 all plant and thus animal life ceasts to exist. At less than 200ppm plants start dieng off which is also extremely bad. Plants LOVE it at around 1000ppm. We are currently at 385ppm. Seems to me that in order to insure that we stay well above the minimum 200ppm level we should be at least at 300ppm. The last time it was over a 1000ppm we were in an ice age. Perhaps a study needs to be done to determine the optimum CO2 concentration before we start deciding at what level we want to control it at.

Now that many of you have taken the above little test. Here are some more questions.

Questions
1) Does Obamas plan provide for cheap and plentiful energy for all or an expensive and scarce supply?
2) Does Obamas plan call for low or high corporate taxes?
3) Does Obamas plan give you more or less money to spend in your paycheck?
4) Is Obamas plan on the right track?

Answers
1) expensive and scarce. If he wanted cheap and plentiful that drastically lowers CO2 output, nuclear is the current answer, and for the future we should invest very heavily into fusion energy research. Fusion energy is the energy that powers the universe and is ultimately the energy that mankind will need to harness if we are to have any chance to live in excess of a million years.
2) High corporate taxes. This will lead to loss of jobs and thus loss of money to be spent by the population and ever increasing demands on the welfare expenditures.
3) In the end, less money. Current policies will lead to high inflation, higher taxes, lower paying jobs and fewer jobs.
4) You answer this one.

Both major political parties are robbing the people blind for the power elite in this country (Congress, special interests, the Fed Reserve, and their banking buddies). They argue with each other just enough to keep the citizens of this country split along party lines on things that don't really matter and then meet each other after session for drinks and food at fine Washington steak houses and toast themselves. They don't want us united lest we throw them all out of office, abolish the Fed and its insidious fiat money printing machine, and go back to governing as a Constitututional Republic. There will be no real change until the monopoly of dems and repubs is done away with.

Spend less, spend more. Bigger government, smaller government. Less taxes, more taxes.
You're all wrong....... it's not degrees of these things, it's what you get for what you pay.
We could pay $100 a year per person in taxes and get nothing for it and that's a bad deal, but we could pay $25,000 a year in taxes and get something and it's still a bad deal.
What we (as citizens) should ask for is more efficient government. Let's get a good deal for our taxes. We should be chanting "more bang for our bucks"..... meaning that what we pay in taxes is spent well and not wasted.
Would you complain about taxes if you had good roads, health care, military, police, emergency services, education, etc. ? Of course not. But, you would complain if you had no roads, helth care, etc., even if you pain $0 in taxes.......

"MORE BANG FOR OUR BUCKS"

The funny thing here is reading all the responses of those who want Obama to resign and/or are looking forward to the 2010 and 2012 elections to bring him down or bring a so called change. What these brainiacs fail to recognize is that no matter who gets to that position, he/she will have to do the same thing or something close to what's in place right now. Politicians say anything and everything to get elected, which is the cool aid that all fools want to drink because it is of their party affiliation. The failure to progress and fix problems in this country is not because who is in office, it is due to all those who hate the other party and would rather see the country go to hell, than to betray their political line. To whom should politicians show their alliance? It should not be to a political party, but to the people who elected them. Unfortunately, neither party is willing to drop the crap and get to work as one nation.

I'm surprised and very disappointed that the stimulus money hasn't yet gotten into the nation's economic hard-drive. Are our leaders overly diligent or just incompetent? I hope CNN continues to keep us alerted to unfolding developments regarding this matter.

Einstein’s definition of an IDIOT. Someone who continues to do the same thing and expects different results. Second stimulus?

He's not an idiot, friend! He is a conman, and nothing more! Have you people never seen a conman before? We are being completely robbed here!! And, I hear that it is being appealed to the court that he really never did have a birth certificate to begin with, and was NEVER a legal US citizen, having been born here! They filed it yesterday, I think. They are claiming that we were misled and that this conman took the presidency with a fake ID. They seem to think that they have proof! On top of it ...that would mean that they already lied in a federal court!! Leave it to the demos!! What a mess and a shame! If this is true, I want to see an impeachment and Federal charges placed on anyone who was involved in this treasonous act against the US Americans!! They were supposed to file it in Atlanta. CNN, again PLEASE keep us posted!

Obama hasn't really had a chance to prove himself as yet. He was handed a pile of sh#@ left to him by the previous adminstration. I used to be a republican. But I'm adament about telling people that I did not vofote for that idiot BUSH. We should never have elected a man of his nature into office as president. He was a pampered rich boy who had never really earned anything on his own . His track record of anytype of management even in the corporate world was at best lackluster. So why did anyone think he could be a good president. Most of his administrative ALL we heard were excuses as why things he did failed. To me often on that stage he looked like Jerry Mahoney, the dummy with Cheney's hand up his back telling him what to say.

It was embarassing to have George Bush as president. The greatest country in the world with a FOOL for it's leader. What a joke to the world that was. He was dishonest making himself and his oil friends and rich republican friends vastly richer off the backs of the american people. Thats how the finances of the US got where they are now.

Obamas plan may not have worked yet, BUT making everything visible is the TRUE answer for our survival for america here. Paying the top management of corporations LESS than what they are currently being paid. The have's and have nots are way out of balance in this company , it needs to be drastically back into balance for the company to survive.

A "Thank you" to TOM who posted a bit of sense among all the nonsense on - July 15th, 2009 2:46 pm ET

CHANGE! CHANGE! WE ALL CAN BELIEVE IN!
I have learned alot . What I figured out is democrats and republicans and the rest of the FOOLISH politicans that we ELECTED are just goin to destroy DEMOCRACY. Now I want to to tell you a little bit about something, if you ever saw the STAR WARS Movies. If you watch Episode I, II, III. You'll find out that the STORYLINE is based on GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION. A guy named darth sidious becomes elected as chancellor, he is the senator of his own planet Naboo. He is behind the invasion of naboo. Which in RL terms could be (USA)=(Republic) and (Trade Federation)=communism AGAINST FREEDOM. The interesting thing is this one guy is interested for POWER for himself. Anyway, the bottomline isif you watch the movies its principle is based of the government itself is the source of corruption the ones we elected into office it doesn't matter what color you are, where you come from. The point is watch the movies you'll also see in the 2 star wars movie how the republic vs the new confederacy (in other terms palpintine was able to be in officer longer then he was supposed to be and the jedi tried to arrest him, and found out a horrible truth.) are fighting in the time of war the GOVERNMENT can take a bigger step TOWARDS a POWER GRAB FOR THEMSELVES! Anyway, then he executes a order 66 to kill all JEDI which stand (for freedom and defend democaracy) end up being kiled in the 3rd star wars movie because he knew that they would have him impeached. So he calls himself the senate aswell. And he INSURES THE SECURITY AND PEACE for all when the republic=USA becomes Galactic Empire=Socialist America anyway do some research for yourself.
it no longer matters, what color you are, eithin, came from. WE AS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE just need to get rid of THESE corrupted POLITICANS. And get REAL people running for office and VOTING for the right ones and I am NOT if either political party because the TRUTH is both parties are goin right along with it and if you haven't noticed we the people are sitting in our chair taking time out of our day to say all this, and WE NEED TO MAKE OUR VOICES be heard! I can even give you way more evidence then SW Movies and go deeper but maybe some of you will get the point NEVER EVER ELECT POLITICANS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE FIRST if of color, race, background that doesn't matter we people need to work together as ONE and stop arguing amongest eacth other and come to know the truth and stop being stupid, WE ALL KNEW ELECTNG OBAMA WAS A FAIL! But 60million something people voted for him anyway. Yeah, you can go back on Bush you know what the bottomline is we have A PRESIDENT NOW AND OTHER POLITICANS THAT ARE FULL OF IT.
And you don't need a guy out of high school tellin ya da FACTS!
Anyway, the point is if you want America to be the COUNTRY of freedom/Democracy and ALL. You need to ELECT/VOTE for thoese who you want to lead your country in the RIGHT DIRECTION. This is our country, we have people dieing and fighting for our freedoms..and for it to go into we will give you change and you can get FREE MONEY! thats nothing but a lie WE ARE PAYING FOR THIS ! This doens't work.
I am NOT mad, just sharing some facts with ya mates! Bless ye all brothers/sisters!

I often wonder how the people in congress and the senate are going tol live on unemployment after the next elections.

How can Obama take 8 years of neglect and incompetence and turn it around in less than 6 months? You can't. Remember Clinton-Gore's economic turnaround didn't happen right away - it took 2 terms in office. Then the huge surplus we had was turned into the biggest deficit at the hand of Dumdum Dubya and Darth Cheney. It was during the 2004 election that I gave up completely on the Republican party (and with the Palins, Limbaughs, etc, it was great timing) and while I didn't swing completely into the Decomcrat's camp, I became an Independent. I think Obama is the right man for the job. He's young and vigorous and is bold enough to try to change the status quo. I'd rather try than give up without trying. "Nothing ventured..." If he fails(and I hope he doesn't, Mr. Limbaugh), there's always the next election.