Paul Krugman has written about this in his blog fairly often, but until now I haven't see it in a column, at least not so explicitly. And for some reason no one brings this up in most of the main stream media. For example, when David Gregory asks on Meet the Press if the current deficits are going to bankrupt future generations, the simple answer is that without massive deficit spending to get the economy moving people won't be making as much money and therefore not paying as much taxes which is really problematic for long term deficits.
Here is the gist of that concept. Full column at link.
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Even the claim that we’ll have to pay for stimulus spending now with higher taxes later is mostly wrong. Spending more on recovery will lead to a stronger economy, both now and in the future — and a stronger economy means more government revenue. Stimulus spending probably doesn’t pay for itself, but its true cost, even in a narrow fiscal sense, is only a fraction of the headline number.Paul Krugman has written about this in his blog fairly often, but until now I haven't... more
Texas Republicans opposed the $787 billion stimulus package, but their districts are getting more than their fair share of emergency funds. Working my way through the detailed data this morning from Recovery.gov, a quick analysis shows that more than $8.6 billion has been awarded to entities in GOP districts. About $4.3 billion is going to Democratic districts. (The Texas delegation includes 20 Republicans and 12 Democrats.)
Rep. Lamar Smith, who I always think of as a San Antonio-area Republican, leads all members in stimulus grants because his district includes part of Austin. That means his stimulus haul includes many research grants awarded to the University of Texas. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell, is doing well because his district includes Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where TxDOT chose to invest $250 million to reconstruct State Highway 114.
Beware the math. Some Republican lawmakers critical of President Barack Obama's stimulus package are using grade-school arithmetic to size up costs and consequences of all that spending. The math is satisfyingly simple but highly misleading.Beware the math. Some Republican lawmakers critical of President Barack Obama's... more
FROM THE NEWS BLOG:
The Obama Administration has released its first broad report on jobs created or saved by the stimulus program. Focused on $150 billion in spending of the total $787 billion package, the report estimates that around 640,000 jobs have been created or saved nation-wide. The numbers are controversial, with Republicans already claiming that they're a bit to optimistic. But the actual impact of the stimulus dollars has proven difficult to nail down.
The Obama administration continued to maintain that the actual number of jobs created so far is closer to 1 million. The reports did not reflect measures such as tax cuts, boosted unemployment benefits or jobs created indirectly by stimulus spending. A total of $339 billion has been drawn down so far under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"Every dollar being spent from Recovery Act is helping put someone back to work," said Vice President Joe Biden, citing 80,000 construction jobs and 325,000 education positions created or saved by stimulus funds. "My message today is that we're on track."
Probably the best reporting on the subject out there comes from our friends at ProPublica who have been tracking the stimulus program all year.
We're keeping an eye on jobs and joblessness during the recession, so these numbers are definitely of interest to us. We've seen a few personal stories from users here on Current:
User diabolical44 writes:
"I graduated college with a Bachelors degree in May of 2008. The economy went to complete shit soon there after. Now , almost a year and a half later, I still have no job. I've worked here and there, waiting tables, delivering pizza, packing boxes in a warehouse, but no real job. No career to speak of. No sign of hope either."
Anyone out there gotten work thanks to the stimulus program? Tell us your story.
President Obama's stimulus plan delivers 650,000 jobs. Grants and loans from the $787 billion economic stimulus plan has saved or created 640,329 jobs so far. As the recovery grows, the evidence mounts: the Obama administration has saved the United States from an economic calamity as devastating as the great depression.Obama stimulus plan delivers 650,000 jobs; saves economy http://bit.ly/1xNJq7... more
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Colorado company said it created 4,231 jobs with the help of President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan. The real number: fewer than 1,000.
A child care center in Florida said it saved 129 jobs with the help of stimulus money. Instead, it gave pay raises to its existing employees.
Elsewhere in the U.S., some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two, three, four or even more times.
The government has overstated by thousands the number of jobs it has created or saved with federal contracts under the president's $787 billion recovery program, according to an Associated Press review of data released in the program's first progress report.
The discrepancy raises questions about the reliability of a key benchmark the administration uses to gauge the success of the stimulus. The errors could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is released. It is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.
more at link.... ah, no big deal.... just maybe a one in six error.... no biggie.Oct 29, 8:27 AM (ET)
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and MATT APUZZO
WASHINGTON (AP) - A... more
60,000 Teacher Jobs Restored with Stimulus, Educators Say It's Not Enough
New America Media, News Report, Rupa Dev and Aaron Glantz, Posted: Oct 24, 2009
More than 60,000 of the 250,000 education jobs saved nationally by President Barack Obama's stimulus package were in California, according to data released this week by the California Department of Education.
Community activists expressed relief over the saved jobs, but Fred Glass, spokesperson for the California Federation of Teachers, cautioned that while the stimulus package "stopped some of the bleeding," the state still had to lay off an estimated 10,000 teachers.
"It's slightly better than we thought it would be," Glass said. "But that's because most of the districts depleted their reserves or found other ways to keep cuts away from the classroom ... They cut back on supplies, gardeners, school support secretaries, and food service workers."
"You can't have a functional school without all that," he said.
The $4.9 billion in education funding that California received under the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act partially offset deep cuts to classrooms that were made by politicians in Sacramento. Rather than resulting in new teachers being hired, the stimulus package caused fewer teachers to be laid off.
Responding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that received billions of dollars in the government’s financial rescue, the Obama administration will order the companies that received the most aid to deeply slash the compensation to their highest paid executives, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday
Under the plan, which will be announced in the next few days by the Treasury Department, the seven companies that received the most assistance will have to cut the annual salaries of their 25 best-paid executives by an average of about 90 percent from last year. Their total compensation — including bonuses and retirement contributions — will drop, on average, by about 50 percent. The companies are Citigroup [C 4.42 -0.01 (-0.23%) ], Bank of America [BAC 16.51 -0.50 (-2.94%) ], American International Group [AIG 38.96 -1.47 (-3.64%) ], General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of the two automakers.
At the financial products division of the insurance giant, A.I.G., the locus of problems that plagued the large insurer and forced its rescue with more than $180 billion in taxpayer assistance, no top executive will receive more than $200,000 in total compensation, a stunning decline from previous years in which the unit produced many wealthy executives and traders.
In contrast to previous years, an official said, executives in the financial products division will receive no other compensation, such as stocks or stock options.
And at all of the companies, any executive seeking more than $25,000 in special perks — such as country club memberships, private planes, limousines or company issued cars — will have to apply to the government for permission. The administration will also warn A.I.G. that it must fulfill a commitment it made to significantly reduce the $198 million in bonuses promised to employees in the financial products division.
The pay restrictions illustrate the humbling downfall of the once proud giants, now wards of the state whose leaders’ compensation is being set by a Washington paymaster.
They also show how Washington in the last year has become increasingly powerful in setting corporate policies as more companies turned to the government for money to survive.
The compensation schedules set by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the special master at Treasury handling compensation issues, comes as many other banks that received smaller but significant taxpayer assistance in the last year have been reporting huge year-end bonuses, setting off a new round of recrimination in Washington about bailout of Wall Street.
Since his appointment last June by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Mr. Feinberg has spent months in negotiations with the companies as he seeks to balance compensation concerns against fears at the companies that any huge restrictions in pay could prompt an exodus of executives. Under a law adopted earlier this year, the Treasury Department was instructed to examine the salaries and bonuses for the five most senior executives and their 20 most highly paid employees at companiResponding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that... more
Earlier this year, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) — commonly referred to as the stimulus — without a single Republican vote in the House of Representatives. Since then, a whole host of legislators who opposed the stimulus have jumped at the opportunity to personally deliver stimulus funds to their cash-strapped districts.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that not a single Georgian GOP legislator who voted against ARRA has turned down stimulus funds for their district. The paper notes one congressman, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), has managed to get away with this hypocrisy by hiding the source of the funds he is doling out:
On July 28, Kingston’s office issued news releases announcing $245,187 combined in funding through the federal Office of Community Oriented Policing Services for the Alma and Jesup police departments. The money will pay the salary and benefits for one entry-level police officer for each department for three years, according to Kingston’s news releases, which did not mention the funding was made possible by the federal stimulus program.
“We’ve seen from experience that local initiatives go a lot further toward solving local problems than policies set in Washington,” Kingston said in his release about the funding for Jesup. “This funding will provide tax relief by saving local tax dollars.”
In February, Kingston said the recovery act is “fundamentally flawed and doesn’t represent the change we deserve or the stimulus we need.” His spokesman said Kingston, who remains opposed to the stimulus, routinely announces all types of federal funding for his district without identifying the legislation that created it.
“We are very cautious not to take credit for it in those releases,” Kingston spokesman Chris Crawford said.
Last week, ThinkProgress noted that Kingston’s colleague Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) — another ardent opponent of the stimulus — handed a giant, stimulus-funded check to the city of Cedartown, Georgia to help fund community development projects.
Gingrey — who remains opposed to the Recovery Act — was forced to release this statement explaining his hypocrisy: “If the Democrats are hellbent on spending an astronomical sum of money, it is my job as a member of Congress to see that the communities I represent receive consideration for the federal funds that the Democrats are spending, whether I agreed with its allocation or not.”Earlier this year, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)... more
From the moment it passed, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the stimulus bill—has been the subject of controversy. Many critics have deemed it a debacle, since unemployment has continued to rise in the months since its passage. The Republican Party declared the bill a failure over the summer, and House Minority Leader John Boehner recently deemed it a waste: "You can't spend $800 billion of taxpayer money and not create jobs when you say that's what the goal was." At a dinner several weeks ago, I heard a cable news reporter, one whose job is to report numbers accurately, declare that "we've already spent $800 billion and it was a waste." I suppose it's too much to ask political hacks and TV reporters to get the size and timing of the stimulus package right. But I expect better from my colleagues at the Washington Post editorial page, which on Sunday argued against further stimulus measures because they would add to the scary national debt and because "the government still hasn't run through half of the $787 billion in tax cuts and spending increases enacted this year."
To begin with, the stimulus was $787 billion, not $800 billion. (Those of you who think there isn't much of a difference, please make out a check for the difference to Daniel M. Gross.) The more egregious error has to do with the timing. Many critics act as if the entire amount has already been spent. They're completely wrong. Even to argue that it's been half-spent, as the Post, does, is only half-right.
This is not surprising. The ARRA is divided into six different types of components, from tax cuts to infrastructure investments. Some can be done quickly (cutting and mailing tax rebate checks) while others (building bridges) take longer. "The areas where stimulus has been largest in the first six months are individual tax cuts, state fiscal relief, and aid to those most directly hurt by the recession," the CEA reported. Through the end of August, in fact, tax cuts accounted for $62.6 billion of expenditures, and government investment outlays accounted for only $16.5 billion.
In other words, nearly eight months after its passage, a large majority of the stimulus has yet to start impacting the economy—as was the plan. And as was also the plan, the most visible parts of the stimulus are only taking effect now and will remain active through 2010. As you drive around town, it's difficult to visualize tax rebates or aid to states—the fast-acting components of the stimulus. But as I drive around my town today, I can see workers laboring at a $4 million, stimulus-backed road project that is just getting started and will run through the spring of 2011.From the moment it passed, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment... more
Colorado companies have created more jobs through federal contracts funded with stimulus dollars than companies in every other state, according to the first batch of Recovery Act data.
While the number -- 4,695 jobs created or saved -- may sound encouraging for Colorado, it also is misleading in terms of economic impactColorado companies have created more jobs through federal contracts funded with... more
The Senate appears ready to drop about $20 billion for two pieces of economic stimulus that no one wants to label “stimulus,” in the form of additional jobless benefits for unemployed workers and an extended, expanded tax credit for homebuyers.
Weighing in at $16.7 billion, the homebuyer tax credit being pushed by Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) makes up the bulk of that total. The Joint Committee on Taxation released that estimated price tag Tuesday.
Isakson and Dodd plan to offer their housing tax credit extension as an amendment to legislation extending jobless benefits. The jobless benefits – the second bit of stimulus the Senate is likely to approve – would cost about $2.4 billion according to a preliminary estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. The cost of the extended jobless benefits would be offset by extending the federal unemployment tax on employers through June 30, 2011.
Republicans want to amend the Democratic bill so it is paid for with stimulus funds and have objected to leadership's attempts to pass the jobless benefits bill by voice vote.
If the Isakson-Dodd amendment becomes law, taxpayers would have likely spent more than $30 billion on spurring home sales alone, since the original yearlong housing tax credit – limited to first-time buyers only – included in the $787 billion stimulus is estimated to cost about $15 billion by the time it expires at the end of the year.
That doesn’t seem to be fazing many senators.
“I haven’t had any objection yet,” Isakson said, ticking off a bipartisan list of expected supporters including Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). He said he believes leadership will allow Dodd and him to offer the amendment when the unemployment bill comes to a vote.The Senate appears ready to drop about $20 billion for two pieces of economic stimulus... more
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's Las Vegas Save the Dream event provides free same day solutions to thousands of homeowners, helping to avoid foreclosure, restructure mortgages, and reduce interest rates to as low as 2%
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) October 7, 2009 -- Las Vegas is the next stop of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's (NACA) nationwide Save the Dream tour. It is coming to the Las Vegas Convention Center on Friday, October 9, through Monday, October 12, 2009.
What: Press conference to launch the Las Vegas event
When: Thursday, October 8, 1 p.m.
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall 3 and 4
This is the third city in the Western U.S. leg of the NACA tour. Los Angeles, the first city on the Western U.S. tour, drew more than 50,000 homeowners looking for mortgage restructuring relief, and the second city, Phoenix, drew approximately 40,000 homeowners.
Click for full article......
P.S. My boss went to this event and got her monthly payment reduced by 2/3 of it original and now it includes taxes and insurance! Her son found out that BofA defrauded him and NACA is helping him get ready to sue for his house. His friend went to the conference in L.A. the last day she was to loose her house and they saved it! She is still there now and doesn't start making payments till 01/10! This is real and happening now! My boss was telling me how mind boggling it was to see NACA demand the banks makes efforts to help the Humans there fighting for their shelter, and the banks obey. THIS IS REAL! My boss told me in amazement as she realized how much this helped her and the 1000s of others in Vegas, "Tim, no one has to be afraid to loose their house anymore." I thought that was profound. Everyone she met got more than they ever imagined possible. Too good to be true, maybe? If you miss it it is, thats for sure.Wed Oct 7, 2:00 pm ET
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's Las Vegas... more
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the economy contracted at an annual rate of 5.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2008 and 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2010. Even allowing for the so-called “Keynesian multiplier”—in an economy operating below full-employment, increases in government outlays can generate further increases in income and spending—the Obama stimulus was never likely to boost the economy enough to prevent unemployment from reaching ten per cent.
Let’s be clear, however, about what this means. It doesn’t imply, as some Republicans have claimed, that the stimulus money was wasted. As far as they went, the Obama tax cuts and spending increases helped to produce a genuine (and largely unexpected) economic turnaround. After contracting sharply for two quarters, the economy is now growing again, albeit not quickly enough for the fifteen million unemployed Americans. Most forecasters expect third-quarter G.D.P. growth, which will be announced at the end of the month, to come in at three per cent, or more. Most of the credit for this upturn must go to near-zero interest rates and various other quasi-socialistic methods the Fed has introduced to boost the credit and housing markets, but fiscal policy also played a role.
Now, however, the Fed is preparing to eliminate some of its emergency support measures, and further support from the fiscal side might well be necessary to prevent the dreaded “double-dip.” Fortunately, such help is already on its way. This, surely, cannot have been an accident.According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the economy contracted at an annual rate... more
It was one of the most dramatic signs to date of how deeply joblessness and the home foreclosure crisis have pushed people from the lower and middle ends of the economic scale to seek help wherever they can.
City officials said a total of about 65,000 people over the past few days have gotten applications -- due next Wednesday -- for a share of $15.2 million in federal stimulus money to help people avoid foreclosure or quickly rebound from homelessness.It was one of the most dramatic signs to date of how deeply joblessness and the home... more
The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials grappling with the highest unemployment in a generation.
The proposal has some bipartisan appeal among politicians eager both to help their unemployed constituents and to encourage small-business development. Legislators on Capitol Hill and President Obama’s economic team have been quietly researching the policy for several weeks.
“There is a lot of traction for this kind of idea,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip. “If the White House will take the lead on this, I’m fairly positive it would be welcomed in a bipartisan fashion.”
In addition to the economists working on the proposal, some heavyweights support the concept, including the Nobel laureate Edmund S. Phelps, Dani Rodrik of Harvard and former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich.
One version of the approach, to be unveiled next week by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research organization, would give employers a two-year tax credit if they increased the size of their work force or added significant hours of work (for example, making a part-time worker full time). Employers would receive a credit worth twice the first-year payroll tax for each new hire, amounting to several thousand dollars, depending on the new worker’s salary.The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal... more
Every single Republican in the House voted against the $819 billion Recovery Act in January. Among the Republican senators who voted against the stimulus were Texas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. Both of them complained that they wanted to see more tax cuts rather than government spending.
But now, both Hutchison and Cornyn are pressuring the Obama administration to give Texas $3 billion in stimulus funds.
Follow link for more on republican hypocrisy By Amanda Terkel at Think Progress.Every single Republican in the House voted against the $819 billion Recovery Act in... more
The seeming inconsistency between the perception of being immune from data breach risks with the rapid growth in data breach incidents, led us to think about whether organizations can actually quantify their level of breach risk. We were somewhat surprised that there is not much available to organizations to help them in scoring their vulnerability.The seeming inconsistency between the perception of being immune from data breach... more
In his Saturday radio address, President Obama acknowledged the White House is exploring "additional options to promote job creation." It's about time. This is the worst job market in 70 years -- including the longest duration of steep job losses.
What should be done about unemployment?
If anyone had any doubt that something far more dramatic must be done, listen to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He warned Sunday against further stimulus because "we are in a recovery, and I think it would be a mistake to say the September numbers alter that significantly." Greenspan has turned into an inverse soothsayer. After his cataclysmic error about where the economy was headed before the meltdown, his views about the future should be carefully noted as being the exact opposite of what's likely to be in store.
The economy may be in a technical recovery, but this is not a real recovery, and the "green shoots" or "positive signs" that Wall Street cheerleaders love to shout about are phantoms of their ever-optimistic imaginations. The stimulus is working but it is far from adequate. Before the stimulus, we were losing more than 500,000 jobs a month. Now that 40 percent of the stimulus has been spent, we are losing more than 250,000 jobs a month.
What to do? With the debt ceiling approaching and the gravitational pull of the 2010 elections increasing, the White House can't go back to Congress with a formal bill to enlarge the stimulus package. Four simpler moves would be to:In his Saturday radio address, President Obama acknowledged the White House is... more
