For most of a century, macroeconomists have debated the pros and cons of government “stimulus” policies. Because there is no way to determine how the economy would have performed without a stimulus, the debate comes down to dueling economic models, assumptions, and theories. With Nobel Prize-winning economists lining up on both sides of the issue, the debate has seemed destined to continue. Apparently, that is, until now. PolitiFact – a group of reporters affiliated with the St. Petersburg Times in Florida – has declared the debate over. In a “fact …
Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly job report showing that the economy lost 345,000 jobs in May. This brings the total number of jobs lost in the first full three months since the economic stimulus package was passed to 1.5 million jobs. Countering these inconvenient truths, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a new “accelerated” “roadmap to recovery”, which the AP dryly notes “is neither new nor accelerated.” Officially, the Obama administration claims their stimulus plan has already “saved or created” 150,000 jobs, …
