Tarped and Stimulated
The Commerce Department will release the preliminary estimate of third quarter GDP on Thursday and the consensus expectation is for a positive growth rate of 3%. Considering what has been spent on behalf of economic recovery I would sure hope that we get something north of 3%. TARP took roughly 5% of GDP from the private .. read more
Market Week in Review
The steady stock market uptrend since the November lows was broken this week as the bad economic data and bailout uncertainties continued. Market action was dominated by news in the financial sector. JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America all announced more writeoffs this week although JP Morgan at least was able to report a .. read more
Stimulus Package Details
Updated: 2/14 Feb. 12 – Details of the final version of the stimulus package have been released. The final price tag would come out to about $789 billion, broken down to roughly $282 billion in tax changes (I will not call them tax cuts because most of them aren’t) and $507 billion in spending. What .. read more
Still Blaming the Victims
As the new Obama administration prepares to enact the mother of all “stimulus” packages, it seems that some still can’t get straight what caused the current worldwide recession. Hank Paulson still believes the problem was caused by Asians saving too much: In a recent interview with the Financial Times, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson blamed the .. read more
A More Effective Stimulus Plan
If we really want to stimluate the economy, there are better ways than the government spending more money we don’t have. Richard Rahn’s plan (via Cato): If government handouts, tax rebates and infrastructure spending are unlikely to help, what can be done? First, recognize what caused the problem – misguided government monetary policy and financial .. read more
Alliterative Stimulus
Almost every advocate of a fiscal stimulus believes the stimulus should be “temporary, targeted and timely”. Unfortunately, as we saw with the tax rebates of earlier this year, stimulus of this type is ineffective. Our politicians have tried this repeatedly over the years with the same results yet they keep trying. Why doesn’t it work? .. read more
