Three respected economists wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal today arguing that the stimulus failed. While The BBFiles doesn't like using strong words like "fail" (we don't have to make headlines), the article is very interesting and should be read by Congressmen in Washington.
The BBFiles does not believe that President Obama's highest advisers (Larry Summers, Paul Volker, Christina Romer and Timothy Geithner) ever believed too strongly in the stimulus plan. Congressmen, who are mostly responsible for the plan, should try to pass this argument along to their constituents.
The BBFiles believes that stimulus can work. However, there is an enormous diminishing return after teh $500 billionth dollar, and since Bush was already stimulating the economy by this amount via tax cuts, there really was no need for such a large stimulus bill. Probably about an additional $250Billion would have been more than enough.
Here is the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574385233867030644.html
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I seem to remember that most non-hardcore libertarians at the time said that a stimulous bill was definitely needed. Now people aren't so sure, it seems. Do you think that the reason they changed their minds was because the scary danger is passed and everyone can go back to thinking rationally? (or do I remember the consensus wrong?)
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