Economists say the stimulus package's impact is helping to blunt downturn

Economists See a Limited Boost From Stimulus
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By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: August 6, 2009


WASHINGTON — Even as the Obama administration braces for another grim report about job losses on Friday, economists say that the president’s $787 billion stimulus package has helped blunt the downturn in limited but discernible ways.

A report card on the stimulus plan offered by analysts nearly six months after it was passed by Congress suggests that the punch from increased government spending has helped the economy begin to bottom out faster than it would have otherwise. The tax cuts included in the plan, economists said, have had less of an impact because people tended to save the money or use it to pay down debt rather than spend it.

The effectiveness of the stimulus package has emerged as one of the most pressing concerns facing the White House. The government will release a jobs report on Friday that is expected to show that the unemployment rate ticked up in July from 9.5 percent in June, providing Republicans and conservative economists new ammunition to argue that the stimulus has been a waste of taxpayer money.

While there is a consensus that a fragile recovery is in the offing, the outlook remains murky. Still, analysts say the impact of the stimulus, while small, is discernible.

White House officials estimate that the stimulus program pumped about $100 billion into the economy through June. That was only a small share of the total projected spending, and much of the first wave came in the form of tax cuts, tax rebates and higher spending on safety-net programs like unemployment benefits and health care.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/business/economy/07stimulus.html?_r=1

and turning things around.

Damn him.

:hi:

I'm in (line)!

:fistbump:

:toast:

anybody that is eja-kated is obviously a librul elitist.

I heard on CNN that all these programs started under Dubya and Obama is just cruisin' along taking the credit.

I thought they said this wasn't going to work...

- 'analysts' is very poor attribution. Which analysts?

- Banks have yet to write down the real value of their assets.

- The real estate market is nowhere near stabilizing, and has hardly been helped by the so-called 'stimulus'

- Government spending has helped only those who are in the pipeline. The remainder of the economy is still dying on the vine.

- There is still massive unemployment, and companies are still going bankrupt on a daily basis.

- Bank failure are still being announced every Friday.

- The CDO/CDS market is still very much in play.


My personal opinion is that the so-called 'stimulus' made life better for a few well-connected insiders, including these 'analysts' who get paid to write rose-colored articles about green shoots. It has not, however, changed ANY of the factors that are at the core of this crisis, nor even fixed the initial hotspots (like the Real Estate market), and the subsequent damage that has been done.

Tell that to all the people benefiting, k?

www.recovery.gov

You can check by state what progress is being made. People are remaining employed (teachers, nurses, cops, etc.), or finding employment for jobs that are being created.

For those of you who require immediate gratification, that's not the way it works and is impossible. I'll take small victories.

I'd love to see this on the main page. :-)

so the rest is just spin.

And sure... pumping a few trillion into the system will help some people, inevitably. That doesn't mean it solved the problem though.

So I guess I don't see this as a 'victory'.

not to mention the sheer speed at which the former funds were dispatched.

We really don't know how severe it might have been or it may still be? But any progress in stopping the freefall in the economy is good. It may have been much, much worse?