Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal says it worked, but no doubt the experts here will disagree or dismiss his conclusions. I think it has had a positive impact but like all government interventions, more time has to pass before the impact can be fully evaluated.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575307071188294124.html

Bigdogg;392732 wrote:Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal says it worked, but no doubt the experts here will disagree or dismiss his conclusions. I think it has had a positive impact but like all government interventions, more time has to pass before the impact can be fully evaluated.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575307071188294124.html

Except for the fact that it DIDN'T work. Unemployment wasn't kept in check, they basically doubled the monetary base and forced the taxpayers to get billions in toxic assets. The only thing the stimulus did was prevent a depression in current times, just basically pushing it on to future generations. Over 90 banks currently missed their TARP re-payments, but you won't hear that on the TV. http://www.cnbc.com/id/37732312

And of course someone who workd for the Fed is saying it worked, they are the quasi-government agency that kept interest rates too low for too long and caused the boom and bust with too easy credit. They want you to think it worked so you will go back to blindly trusting their privately run banking cartel. All the stimulus did was bolster the balance sheet of the banks and pay off old debt. Paying off old debt DOES NOT create wealth, which is what they are claiming they did with the stimulus.

Yeah, jobless claims are up and real unemployment is around 15%, but the stimulus worked. Please. It may have worked for the bankers, but that's it. The American people will be paying off the bailout for 100 years plus for no gain whatsoever. Once the census workers stop getting paid, the unemployment rate will go right back above 10%.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100617/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

Bigdogg;392732 wrote:Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal says it worked, but no doubt the experts here will disagree or dismiss his conclusions. I think it has had a positive impact but like all government interventions, more time has to pass before the impact can be fully evaluated.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575307071188294124.html

The only discernible fact is that you and Mr. Blinder are distinctly in the minority on this issue.

fish82;392904 wrote:The only discernible fact is that you and Mr. Blinder are distinctly in the minority on this issue.

Do you mean to claim that I am in the minority on here that I claim more time is needed before an accurate assessment can be made or that I think I have all the answers and know more then anyone else dose like you.

Bigdogg;392915 wrote:Do you mean to claim that I am in the minority on here that I claim more time is needed before an accurate assessment can be made or that I think I have all the answers and know more then anyone else dose like you.

I do have all the answers and know more than anyone else. That's beside the point, though.

The point is that the vast majority of the public at large, as well as most economic "experts" disagree with both you and Mr. Blinder.

fish82;392919 wrote:I do have all the answers and know more than anyone else. That's beside the point, though.

Haha! At least your humbleness and humility doesn't make you look intimidating!

One thing I cannot understand is the fact that the majority of jobs being increased under the stimulus plan have gone to government employment. How does increasing the number of government jobs do anything but suck more money out of the wallets of the non-government workers?

Apple;393170 wrote:One thing I cannot understand is the fact that the majority of jobs being increased under the stimulus plan have gone to government employment. How does increasing the number of government jobs do anything but suck more money out of the wallets of the non-government workers?

Somebody has to pay for it...right?

bigmanbt;392812 wrote:Except for the fact that it DIDN'T work. Unemployment wasn't kept in check, they basically doubled the monetary base and forced the taxpayers to get billions in toxic assets. The only thing the stimulus did was prevent a depression in current times, just basically pushing it on to future generations. Over 90 banks currently missed their TARP re-payments, but you won't hear that on the TV. http://www.cnbc.com/id/37732312

And of course someone who workd for the Fed is saying it worked, they are the quasi-government agency that kept interest rates too low for too long and caused the boom and bust with too easy credit. They want you to think it worked so you will go back to blindly trusting their privately run banking cartel. All the stimulus did was bolster the balance sheet of the banks and pay off old debt. Paying off old debt DOES NOT create wealth, which is what they are claiming they did with the stimulus.

It is even worse than that, forget about banks not paying back dividends on TARP, how about what happens when it is obvious they will never pay a dividend - just renegotiate the deal to get whatever the government can even if it is cents on the dollar. It is starting to happen. A packaged deal with exchanging the U.S.'s preferred for a superminority equity holding with private capital controlling the bank going forward failed in Illinois a few days ago, but it appears that this one is going to happen:

http://www.richmondbizsense.com/2010/06/18/another-va-bank-enters-survival-mode/

The bank is in serious trouble. They were overleveraged geographically in the Outer Banks, Hampton Roads area and the DelMarVa Peninsula and extended way to heavily in construction lending for vacation homes and commercial real estate to service increased tourist traffic. Funny thing about recessions, people without jobs and concerned about money stop taking vacations. Their balance sheet is so full of NPAs and OREO it will be quarters before they are in the black. That $80M taxpayers 'invested' is currently worth about $3M (and that is a charitable estimate), and no dividend has ever been paid.

The stock traded around $12 just a couple of years ago, the private capital guys (Carlyle and Anchorage) are buying up at under 50 cents.

By any measurement you want to look at (employment, non-government jobs created, etc.) the stimulus was an ABJECT FAILURE.

All it "accomplished" is putting a huge noose around the necks of future generations that will drag them down to levels we haven't seen in the US in a long, long time -- unless it can somehow be reversed.

Obama and this Congress will go down in history as one of the worst ever -- and may become iconic (in a really bad way) if this country ends up in bankruptcy.

It would be a good day if voters in November would go to the polls knowing where the stimulus money has been spent and why. This ARTICLE talks about how the big states are possibly beginning to understand this dynamic with voters.

...So while 8 million private-sector jobs have disappeared, the number of public-sector job losses is near zero.

Barack Obama's solution is to send borrowed federal dollars -- one-third of the $862 billion stimulus package last year and now a proposal for another $23 billion for teachers -- to states and localities to prop up the pay of unionized public employees. One reason: Unions gave Obama and the Democrats $400 million in the 2008 cycle.

...Congress may vote more money for the public employee unions. But in New York, Andrew Cuomo seems to have gotten the message.