May 2012 Jobs Report

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

At least this will spur Congress to pass further economic stimulus like any high school economics textbook teaches, right? Right?

How much debt do you think the US  can stand to accrue trying to prime the "unprimeable" pump, doing the same thing that really didn't do much before?  Macroeconomics sucks. So many have an opinion about something so few understand, to the extent it is even understandable.  Heck even the gurus are confused. Sometimes you just don't get the behavior changes that you expect.

The stimulus appeared to lack efficacy because at the same time the biggest measures were kicking in 2010, states were carrying out ravaging budget cuts and public employee layoffs that served to diminish its positive effects. At the same time the stimulus obviously was designed to be smaller than it should have been and lacked the most effective measures to appease Collins, Snowe and Specter. The stimulus was ineffective because it wasn't large enough and because it didn't address the state and muni budget problem properly; not because stimulus "doesn't work".

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Obviously it's not desirable for the US to keep piling on debt until the end of time, but the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Depression isn't the time to start cutting government spending.

The problem with the austerity approach is that it's never been an attempt to solve the crisis, but an attempt to use it as an excuse to slash government.

I find it hilarious how some people would like the paint the picture of this debate being between people who favor racking up debt and people who are against deficits. It's almost comical how dumb that argument is.