Economic Stimulus and Job Creation

Posted on February 18, 2010 by townsend

• Judging stimulus by job data reveals success, By David Leonhardt, February 16, 2010, New York Times: “Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs – employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now. If that had happened, what would the economy look like today? Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill. Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative…”
• Independent analysis says federal stimulus brought $2 billion to Wisconsin, By Matthew DeFour, February 17, 2010, Wisconsin State Journal: “In the last year, the federal Recovery Act has infused $2 billion – or about $369 per person – into the pockets of Wisconsin citizens, including $155 million in Dane County, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, a independent nonprofit advocacy group. UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky said the $800 billion stimulus may not have created jobs as swiftly as expected, but it has helped buoy the economy, as well as state and local budgets…”
• Was stimulus good for Ohio?, By Mark Niquette and Doug Caruso, February 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “One year after Congress passed what was intended to be a $787 billion jolt to a reeling economy, at least $2.8 billion has been spent in Ohio so far to preserve jobs and state services, build roads and accomplish a wide range of other purposes. But as Congress considers a second jobs bill, debate still rages about what this stimulus package is accomplishing. Critics question how the money is being spent at a time of growing federal deficits. They also point out that unemployment has gotten worse since the bill was passed one year ago today. According to federal statistics, Ohio has lost a net 107,800 jobs since last February, and the state’s jobless rate rose from 9.5 percent to 10.9 percent during that time…”