July 6, 2009The Politics of a Second StimulusNoam Scheiber, The New Republic | |
The Journal has its second piece in as many editions about the chatter over another stimulus bill. As on Friday, the paper reports that the White House has discussed the idea internally, but believes it's too early to pursue given that so little of the first stimulus (only about 10 percent) has been implemented. I disagree with this substantively--the economy has deteriorated far more than expected when the administration made the forecast on which the first stimulus was based, so it's almost certain to be insufficient even when fully implemented. But, then, I suspect the administration's economists feel more or less the same way. The big obstacle here is obviously political. And I don't necessarily mean that cynically--the only stimulus that matters is the stimulus you... TAGGED: economy | |