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Worries and Options
Matthew Yglesias —
Paul Krugman notes that the economy is falling fast and it may be difficult to bring stimulus to bear all that rapidly:
Infrastructure spending will take time to get going — a new Goldman Sachs report suggests that projects that are “shovel-ready” are probably only a few tens of billions worth, and that a larger effort would take much of a year to get going. Meanwhile, it’s very questionable how much effect tax rebates will have on consumer demand. So it may be hard for stimulus to get much traction until late 2009 — and that’s even if Congress goes along, ...
Pessimistic
Eschaton —
Pessimistic The shrill one is pessimistic. I am, too, but there's at least one thing the Feds can do right away which will have an immediate effect and that's transfer large amounts of money to state and local governments, and transit agencies, which are in the process of cutting their budgets. It won't prevent recession, but it will prevent those cuts from make the recession worse.
Parachute Won't Deploy
Talking Points Memo —
... in favor of levels of stimulus spending that would have been treated as preposterous only a couple months ago by all but the most left-leaning economists. But in this post this morning Paul Krugman suggests that we may not be able to spend the money quickly enough "to pull the economy out of its nosedive before unemployment goes into double digits." ...
Conservatives Need a Bailout
Jon Swift —
... are in Washington this week, hats in hand, looking for a handout. Washington has already bailed out some of our largest banks. But they are not the only ones suffering in this economy, which was ruined by the Democrat Congress and regulations that were implemented by the Clinton Administration that set the ...
Thursday's Mini-Report
Political Animal —
... " cities will not have a daily newspaper. * Paul Krugman makes the case that the stimulus may be slow to take effect, and it may not be possible to "pull the economy out of its nosedive before unemployment goes into double digits." * Some myths are ...
Trillion Dollar Stimulus--GOP Economists Join In, But How To Pull It Off?
Open Left - Front Page —
... Krugman's worried that we won't be able to spend it fast enough, and he's got a point. But one thing we can do is bail out state governments, so that their spending cuts don't further exacerbate the problem, and slash social services that are all the more necessary during a recession. (Now back-dated 12 months!) ...
$1 Per Gallon Gas Next Year?
The Democratic Daily —
... Speaking of the recession… I think it’s just wonderful that our leaders have admitted that we’re in a recession and even back dated it a few months. Some of us figured that one out long ago. Paul Krugman is worrying “about next year” and asks: ...
If Krugman's scared…
Upper Left —
I've been ruminating over economic prospects for next year, and I'm getting scared.…brother, I'm scared.
Conservatives Need a Bailout
Shakesville —
... are in Washington this week, hats in hand, looking for a handout. Washington has already bailed out some of our largest banks. But they are not the only ones suffering in this economy, which was ruined by the Democrat Congress and regulations that were implemented by the Clinton Administration that set the ...
533,000 jobs lost in November
Crooks and Liars —
... in our history," said Richard T. Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, which started its polling in the 1950s. "It is being driven down by a host of factors: falling home and stock prices, fewer work hours, smaller bonuses, less overtime and disappearing jobs."
This is going to be a tough year for everyone including Obama and don't think for a second that the GOP will be there to try and help us out of it.
And Paul Krugman says:
I’ve been ruminating over economic prospects for next year, and ...
Krugman says it's going to take a long time to get a stimulus package implemented
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth —
Paul Krugman: Infrastructure spending will take time to get going — a new Goldman Sachs report suggests that projects that are “shovel-ready” are probably only a few tens of billions worth, and that a larger effort would take much of a year to get going. Meanwhile, it’s very questionable how much effect tax rebates will have on consumer demand. So it may be hard for stimulus to get much traction until late 2009 — and that’s even if Congress goes along, which may be a problem given all the bad analysis and disinformation out there. So here’s what I’m wondering: ...
Infrastructure, stimulus and import propensity
Newshoggers.com —
... Paul Krugman notes that one of the big problems with any large-scale infrastructure program is that there are very few large projects in the pipeline that are ready to go as soon as new money is released. ...
Why are waiting to pass a stimulus package? Why not pass it now?
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth —
I get the symbolic "cool factor" of passing a huge stimulus package on Obama's first day in office, or the new Congress' first week in office. But judging by what I'm reading, we need something huge, soon, before mass panic sets in. Two interesting points from Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman in the past couple of days. 1. Krugman is now "getting scared" and thinks the economy is "falling off a cliff." And about a week ago, or so, I saw him on CNBC saying that the economy was in a "free fall." He keeps using this kind of over-the-top, panic-inspiring ...
