What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

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Before he died, my grandpa purchased an Olds 442...




After he died, grandma got clocked at 75 in a 35.

"But officer, I never went over 35," she stated as she pointed at the dial.

"Ma'am, that's the tachometer..."

:D :D :D
 
An older dude I sang in choir with while I was in high school owned a '65 442.


This one was a Cutlass, '67, with a factory 4-speed, bucke eats and console, and the first year of optional disc brakes. The factory 330 engine was pretty strong for a small block. Dad gave it to me for graduation. I bought a '65 Olds 98 and pulled out the 425 ci engine, had it bored .030 over, and was about to dump a bunch of money and time into it.


Then I got loaded one night and drove it into a ditch on the way home and tore the front end off it. The whole project went to the scrapyard.


I still miss that car sometimes. I wish it were pulling wagons in Kansas.


Off to get some more Irene money.
 
Here’s how fiscal stimulus is supposed to work: The federal government injects a few hundred billion dollars into a sluggish economy through federal spending. That spending sparks additional consumer demand. And that additional demand drives new economic activity that results in a multiplier effect, in which a dollar of initial government spending creates more than a dollar of economic activity, spurring economic growth and job creation.

That was the basic stimulus theory, as explained by Lawrence Summers, who chairs President Obama’s National Economic Council, at the tail end of 2008. The story was convincing enough: In 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—an $830 billion stimulus package—into law, promising “unprecedented transparency” in tracking how the money would be used and how many jobs it would create.

So how did the stimulus work in practice? Daniel Rothschild, a former researcher at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center who now works for the American Enterprise Institute, wanted to find out. Working with Mercatus Center economist Garett Jones between August and November of last year, he oversaw 50 hours of interviews with businesses and contractors that received and applied for stimulus funding. And what he found was that the on-the-ground reality of the stimulus was far messier than the simple theory behind it.

In his initial report, Rothschild relays an illustrative story about a contractor with 25 years of construction experience, much of it laying tile in government buildings. Heading into an otherwise typical job that he expected to account for about two percent of his annual income, the tile-layer made plans to install standard blocks of four-inch white tiles—the same tiles he usually installed, the same tiles found in other parts of the same office complex, and the exact materials called for in the architectural plans.

Then he got updated specs. The large white tiles were out. Tiny, colored tiles that needed to be laid in an intricate pattern were in. Did it matter that the smaller tiles would cost the government 50 percent more than the larger white tiles? Not at all. In fact, the higher cost may have been the point.* The tile-layer told Rothschild’s interview team that “the only reason he could see for using the smaller tiles was to move the money out the door on the ARRA schedule.” So in exchange for their stimulus dollars, taxpayers got a government building with fancier floor tiling.

At other times, they got even less. Rothschild tells another story of a truck salesman who placed a stimulus-funded order for an expensive big-rig. Delivery times on those vehicles range from six to nine months. But stimulus recipients are required to report how many jobs they’ve created every three months. “There was no work that he had actually generated. He was just a salesman,” says Rothschild. And the lag complicated the reporting process as well. “There was no real way to report what would be a fairly normal business transaction.”

Rothschild’s survey results suggest that the law’s reporting requirements, despite having been billed as unprecedented transparency measures, often created more confusion than clarity. In some cases, for example, firms that received stimulus money were instructed by their federal overseers to count jobs created by taking the total amount of money they were given, divide it by some predetermined per-job salary figure, then report the result as the number of jobs created.

Essentially, they were told to assume in their reports that if they got the money, they created jobs—regardless of whether or not any jobs were actually created.

Many firms, however, were given no reporting instructions at all, and thus had to figure out how to count jobs created all on their own. That proved particularly challenging for blue-collar contractors. “The things that were much easier to report were the things that government typically contracts for,” Rothschild says. “And the things that the government typically contracts for are knowledge and managerial positions—things that require a college degree or higher. The entire expense and reporting system was based around the idea that you’re hiring white collar people to do white collar jobs.”

Part of the complexity comes from determining exactly what counts as a job created or saved. An ongoing full-time position certainly counts. But what about the temporary work required by most labor-intensive construction projects? Rothschild describes a local housing authority he interviewed that reported creating 25 jobs with stimulus funds. Seven of the jobs, however, were for house painters who worked for just a few weeks. “But they were still reported as being newly created jobs,” he says. The reports did not distinguish between short-term project work and long-term new positions.

Stimulus money also appears to have funded projects that worked at cross-purposes: Rothschild recalls interviewing a manager at a non-profit that trains non-skilled workers to become skilled craftsmen and construction workers. But wasn’t the stimulus supposed to help create jobs for the existing construction workers who’d been laid off as the economy slumped? In theory, the stimulus was supposed to solve the problem of too little demand for construction labor. But it also ended up funding projects designed to increase its supply.

It’s clear that the stimulus created some jobs in some instances. But the self-reporting is inconsistent enough that the true number is hard to know with much confidence. And many of the projects that the stimulus funded may have been little more than busywork—like the tiler ordered to lay smaller tiles.

"Modern economics has become divorced from micro-economic realities," Rothschild says. "Things that don't fit neatly into a model tend to be discarded." But in any system as expansive as the one created by ARRA, there's bound to be an awful lot that doesn't fit the model. Inevitably, then, complications arise. “No matter how well you design something, the micro level details become very difficult,” Rothschild says. The way stimulus is supposed to work and the way it does, in other words, are rarely the same.
Peter Suderman
Reason.com (Libertarian)




* As Keynes asked the Indian Project Manager, "Why not just give them spoons?"
 
Le chat is out of the bag. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking at a conference, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly said “we are not going to have a Lehman Brothers.” Which probably means there is every chance they may have a Lehman Brothers, only one immeasurably bigger. European Parliament Member Daniel Hannan writes: “We are approaching end-game. Greece is supposed to pay off its next tranche of debts on 17 October, and the markets are now expecting what this blog has long predicted: a large-scale default.”

But since this could lead directly to the unraveling of the European project, no one will countenance even mentioning the apparently inevitable. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has “reaffirmed France’s determination to put everything in place to save Greece,” a wording which strongly suggests he’s going to try to get somebody else to pay for it.

That someone, according to John Ellis at the Business Insider, is likely to be the U.S. taxpayer. He predicts that before long Europe is going to ask Obama for a trillion dollars.

We’re at the end of “extend and pretend.” The crisis of the Eurozone is now acute. The headlines are specific. The best analysis suggests that only extraordinary action can keep it afloat. And even that would work only to delay the inevitable for a month or two more. …

In the days leading up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, then French Finance Minister (now IMF Managing Director) Chistine Lagarde told then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that he could not allow Lehman to fail. The ramifications would be catastrophic, she said. She was mostly right.

Three years later, it will be Angela Merkel talking to President Obama,Treasury Secretary Geithner and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke with exactly the same message. The United States government and the Federal Reserve must come to the rescue of the Eurozone or the ramifications will be catastrophic. And she will say that she needs roughly $1 trillion in financial guarantees and liquidity support. That’s the number that will calm the markets.

That would be crazy. But we live in crazy times. Whether Ellis’ predictions will be borne out by events remains to be seen. But even the BBC now admits that “fear is coursing through the corridors of Brussels.” It is a fear, the BBC says, which has been there for some time, like a nightmare lurking in the background, like the dim awareness that the bill from the credit card company is in the mail. And now the envelope has arrived, bearing the shiny bright logo of the finance company. And it’s all they can do to slit the envelope open and turn the page quiveringly to the page which says “amount due.” They describe the pathetic sight in Brussels of leaders sending sidelong glances, talking out loud largely to themselves, wishing things were better and generally looking vainly for an exit that does not exist.
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfern...s-coursing-through-the-corridors-of-brussels/
 
Good articles. The democrat politicians seem to spend all their time working on perceptions rather than real content. Thank you for posting them.
 
Not even teh NIGGERS support the NIGGER

The only support NIGGER has left is from

NIGGER UD and NIGGER POON​

Obama: “Pass This Bill Now!” Harry Reid: I’ve Got a Few Other Things To Do First But I’ll Get Around To It…


Apparently the Senate’s resident cowboy poetry fan doesn’t share Obama’s sense of urgency.

(AP) — Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans won’t support President Barack Obama’s jobs plan, but he still wants them to vote on the sweeping $450 billion economic recovery effort.

Reid said he won’t immediately take up Obama’s plan because the Senate must tackle other issues first. He didn’t specify which bills would receive priority over Obama’s economic solution.

Reid’s comments came during his first Twitter town hall, where the Nevada Democrat fielded questions from voters on job creation, tax cuts, online poker, the housing market and other issues. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 12.9 percent. The national jobless rate is 9.1 percent.

“America has never ever seen the poverty that we see now,” Reid said. “We don’t have to be mathematicians to understand that that’s not good for our country.”
 
Not even teh NIGGERS support the NIGGER

The only support NIGGER has left is from

NIGGER UD and NIGGER POON​

QUOTE]

NIGGER UD AND NIGGER POON MUST BE PROUD!

We Now Know One Of The Issues Harry Reid Feels Is More Important Than Passing Obama’s Jobs Bill: Bike Paths…

It’s almost like Dingy knows Obama’s bill is DOA.

“Well, for most Americans, [bike paths] are absolutely important. It’s good for purposes of allowing people to travel, um, without burning all the fossil fuel on the highways. I got up this morning really early, and went out and did my exercise. I’m not exaggerating — scores! — at least 30 or 40 bikes — so scores may be a slight exaggeration — of people, not just for exercise, traveling to work. Backpacks on — they are going to work. That’s what bike paths are all about!”

From yesterday:

(AP) — Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans won’t support President Barack Obama’s jobs plan, but he still wants them to vote on the sweeping $450 billion economic recovery effort.

Reid said he won’t immediately take up Obama’s plan because the Senate must tackle other issues first. He didn’t specify which bills would receive priority over Obama’s economic solution.
 
where did the Merc/UD go? are they hiding?

did they finally realize that the obama is a failed idea?

no

they dont

they support him 200%, cause he is a BLACK MAN

and all BLACKS must be supported no matter what

MAKES UD AND POON..................NIGGER PROTECTERS
 
Nothing you post convinces me of anything except what collectivists want us to believe, Here's what I believe in, what cost you $20 in 1965 now costs you $143.84, an inflation rate change of 619.2%. Own it.

UD/mercMORON gets his facts straight from spooky dude, they have to be right.
 
Nothing you post convinces me of anything except what collectivists want us to believe, Here's what I believe in, what cost you $20 in 1965 now costs you $143.84, an inflation rate change of 619.2%. Own it.

Obama was president in 1965? Man. I really gotta stop drinking cus I swear there were. . .several presidents just since I was born in 1983. Now I can't vouch that the world even existed before that point, it's entirely possible that the world truly does revolve around me and anything that claims to have existed prior to the nineteen eighties is just an elaborate lie put into place by myself to make this world seem interesting (hey that theory is no more crazy than what Christians believe) but I need that alternate history book your studying from Vette.
 
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