Stimulus Failure

In the world’s leading economy, 8 million jobs have been lost. The US government disappeared almost a million jobseekers from the unemployment lists in the last two months to try to make the numbers look better. Still, fewer people have jobs now than when the stimulus began. Those workers with jobs earn less than they did then. And those who lose their jobs wait longer than ever to find a new one. Housing is sinking again, too, with nearly half of all the mortgaged houses already worth less than their mortgages. Illinois has stopped paying its bills. California is laying people off wholesale...

Spend now; cut later,’ is still his advice. But with so much spending…and so little to show for it…you’d think he’d be shy about proposing more. At least, he might feel the burden of proof more heavily upon his shoulders. Is there any evidence that increased government spending – even in time of private sector retrenching – makes people better off? And even if ‘spend now, cut later’ were good advice, is there any evidence that they can actually do it? None that we know of.

Based on the experience of the ’80s and ’90s, we observed last week that it didn’t seem to matter what governments did or what they said…the markets went about their business. Today, we add a further provocation.

Let us take a look back at the penultimate budget of the Clinton years:

“Eight years ago, our future was at risk,” Bill Clinton congratulated himself on Sept. 27, 2000. “Economic growth was low, unemployment was high, interest rates were high, the federal debt had quadrupled in the previous 12 years. When Vice President Gore and I took office, the budget deficit was $290 billion, and it was projected this year the budget deficit would be $455 billion.”...

The Clinton era boom is now the Obama era bust. When the contraction hit, the feds followed the formula. They mustered their fiscal and monetary stimulus. But they got no recovery. Spending more now won’t help. Not because the Obama team is less competent than the Clinton crowd. They are just unluckier. Credit is contracting.

So Krugman will be proven right after all after all. Austerity will not bring prosperity. But then, neither would stimulus. Krugman will say ‘I told you so’…and spend the rest of his career in darkness and confirmed delusion.

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