Wednesday night has been a study group for serious economic students for the past eight years. We meet weekly to learn the concepts of economics and to prepare for the AP exam. Last Wednesday, one of my co-workers had learned that the staff was going to be reduced. I told her that Muscatine had just received $1m in stimulus money to retain jobs.
I now wonder how the stimulus money is doled out. Does the stimulus money buy Democratic votes? Do the states that are swing states receive the most money? One should be able to observe the patronage.
Interesting post. We shall see when the stimulus money starts flowing into the states.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it will buy votes even with all of the focus on pork barrel projects, tax day tea parties, and the stock market's every downturn and uptick? Perhaps the better question is: do you think the stimulus package will change swing voters, IN swing states, mind's? I don't think it will.
If anything, once we have to pay it back in high taxes, that is likely to give swing voters pause, regardless of how much stimulus they received and benefited from.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is assuming perfect information. Everyone hates politics and doesn't understand economics, so they usually only see the immediate effect and not the alternative and long run effects. The majority of our country believes this is the worst economic downturn since the depression, because that's what they've been told. Too bad the recession was worse in the early 1980's and was stopped with TAX CUTS!!! We recovered and guess what, it didn't take trillions in debt!
ReplyDeleteJim, I might disagree with your recap of the 1980's recession. I might be wrong, and please correct me if I am, but the Reagan administration pressured Fed Chairman Paul Volcker into deficit spending and corporate tax increases leaving income taxes alone to get out of the recession. Volcker was attempting to cut the money supply and increased the fed funds rate to around 20%. Also, I think we reached a trillion dollars in debt for the first time under Reagan, if I'm not mistaken.
ReplyDeleteSo it did take a trillion dollars in debt, as well as deficit spending, corporate tax hikes, and leaving the Kemp-Roth income tax cuts in place, to get us out of the recession.