Stimulus Bill Created Up To 2.1 Million Jobs

So says the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

The package boosted the economy by up to 3.5 percent and lowered the unemployment rate by up to 2.1 percent during that period, CBO said.

The stimulus has worked so far.  The Great Recession was worse than any economist that it was or would be prior to its passage.  There is more stimulus money (much more, actually) that has yet to be spent.  About the only problems with it?  It was too small and it included too many b.s. tax breaks that don’t stimulate the economy.  Tax breaks don’t stimulate the economy.  They never have and they never will.  The largest expansion of the U.S. economy didn’t occur after the largest tax breaks in American history – during the Bush regime; they happened when taxes on the rich were higher – during the Clinton years.

Economic Numbers Come Out Just Prior to 2008 Election

What will their effect be?  I think they will act as a final reminder to folks that the cons’ economic policies need go no further.  People do want change.  They want to be able to afford their groceries, their gas and their healthcare.  None of them are more affordable now than they were 8 years ago.  They want to have money to retire with and they have seen their pensions and 401k’s eviscerated by the cons.  The numbers that were released today show nothing different than what we’ve seen over the past six weeks.  Here they are:

The economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3% from July through September.  The previous quarter’s number was +2.8%, but you can’t really compare the two.  Remember, the 2nd quarter saw all the economic stimulus checks beings sent out and spent.  It was a one-time deal and that’s confirmed by the 3rd quarter number.  Without those stimulus checks, the 2nd quarter GDP numbers were likely closer to 0.  Economists are predicting the next two quarters will likely be negative also.  We’re already in a recession.  Most Americans have come to this conclusion, I think.  I doubt we’ll get confirmation of it from the cons, however.  Bush’s crew is likely to let that announcement slide to an Obama administration.

Jobless claims for the week again totaled nearly 500,000.  Unemployment is September was reported at 6.1%, but is expected to increase in the months ahead, possibly to 8%.  Unfortunately, the official unemployment number neglects some aspects of the true labor market.  The actual unemployment number is probably a couple percentage points higher.  Tack on underemployment and the actual condition of labor can be assessed – it’s likely to be 12% or greater.

Here’s a headline that should surprise no one: State budget gaps widening as economy slumps.  As a result of the insane tax policies of the cons, the federal budget has been over-allocated.  That has left state budgets stretched thin during the “expansion” of the previous decade.  There wasn’t an expansion and services were required to cover additional people.  Something has to give.  Either the tax-zealots win and services disappear or taxes are raised and services survive (at lower strength perhaps).  This illuminates the biggest problem with cons’ economics: if public services are halted, people will be forced to buy services from the private sector.  Umm, real wages haven’t risen in more than 8 years.  Where exactly are people supposed to get the money to buy those services, because their cost will assuredly increase (that’s what happens in a capital economy, after all).  When people vote, they need to think about how they want to pay for services.  If everybody invests in them with tax dollars, the government can provide them at a low cost.  If everybody is on their own, the private sector will provide them at great cost.  Which means those providing the services will get richer while the rest of us get poorer.  Or people will just be plain unable to get those services.  Services that include education; health care.  How about the police and fire deparments?  Should those be privatized?

[Update]:

Let me present one more economic number: Big Oil Profits for the 3rd quarter.  Remember, the economy went into the crapper, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs and foreclosures are happening at record numbers.  Along with all of that, ExxonMobil once again posted the largest 3-month profit in human history, beating their own record set in the previous quarter.  Just how much did Exxon make in 3 months?  $14.83 billion.  What was their record last quarter?  $11.68 billion.  How about during the 3rd quarter last year?  $9.41 billion.  Did your income go up 58% in the last year?  Because Exxon’s did.  How about 27% more in July-September than April-June?  Exxon did.  And that is only 1 oil corporation – only 1!!  That’s what $4.00 gas did this past summer: it stuffed the pockets of the most profitable corporations even further.  Remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989?  They finally paid some money on that disaster: $170 million.  That’s only 1% of their profit in the last three months.  Pathetic.  Immoral.

In The News 10/23/08

Deregulation and conflict of interest juxtapose in very dangerous territory.  News is slowly coming out that the credit raters knowingly gave their best rating to securities that didn’t deserve it.  Bond and securities issuers pressured rating agencies like Standard & Poor, Moody’s and Fitch, Inc. into issuing AAA ratings that they shouldn’t have.  Not surprisingly, those corporations made very large profits, in no small part because with excellent ratings, securities rose in value and more could be issued … with excellent ratings.  It was but one positive, though artificial and unethical, feedback cycle that kept driving housing prices through the roof in the 1990s and 2000s.  Also in the article: a severe admonishment from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  I had a lot of respect for Rep. Waxman coming out of the 2006 election cycle.  The past two years has shown me that he’s too ready to issue his rebukes but he hasn’t really exercised the oversight for which his committee is responsible.  I suppose getting beat up by the right-wing for decades will do that to you.  Will Waxman push for enforcement of regulations under an Obama presidency?  Time will tell.

Have people really adopted more efficient driving habits?  Will the money saved on falling gas prices go instead to reducing household debt, which runs into the trillions of dollars?  Here again, time will tell.

More economic stimulus is being discussed within Washington.  Should taxpayers get more cash or should the money instead be spent on infrastructure projects?  I vote projects.  They’re not as quick to enact, but they will deliver longer-lasting and more substantial economic growth.  Make a good portion of the projects related to renewable energy development and you’ll knock a whole bunch of birds down with one stone.  A more sane energy policy, mitigation of human forced climate change, improved domestic security, more jobs, a stronger economy.  Giving people checks that they spend once is the weaker solution.  Adding to the already enormous national debt with no medium- to long-term plan just doesn’t make sense.

Comcast is going to start making even more money to provide internet service … that might be only 3rd best in the world … in up to 10 U.S. markets.  Comcast is going to roll out service that will offer speeds up to 50 Megabits per second (Mbps).  At that speed, a movie could be downloaded in 5 minutes.  It takes 2 minutes to download the same movie in Japan right now.  Oh, the Japanese pay the same amount every month that we in the U.S. do for service that is 30 times as fast.  To get the better service, customers will be required to also subscribe to Comcast’s cable service.  What a joke.

India launched its first mission to Earth’s moon.  Chandrayaan-1 will map the moon in greater deatil than what was done by the Apollo missions in the 1960s, by the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft (launched last year), or by China’s Chang’e-1 spacecraft (also launched last year).  Chandrayaan-1 cost $80 million.  The U.S. is planning on sending the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to the moon next year.  That spacecraft will cost $500 million, but will provide even greater mapping resolution than Chandrayaan-1.