NY Times: A Stimulus That Could Save Money

NY Times ^ | November 17, 2009 | By DAVID LEONHARDT

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The one highly visible success of the stimulus bill has been the cash-for-clunkers program. It induced a boom in vehicle sales this summer that clearly would not have happened otherwise.

The rest of the stimulus bill has created a lot of jobs — 700,000 to 1.5 million, according to economists’ estimates. But it has done so in thousands of little ways: scattered construction projects, plugged-up school budgets and the like. Politically, these measures are not popular enough to create a groundswell for more of them.

And the economy still needs help. So White House officials are now looking at creating a new version of cash for clunkers — this time for home weatherization.

John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and former President Bill Clinton have separately suggested versions of the idea to the White House. Mr. Doerr calls his proposal, which would give households money to pay for weatherization projects, “cash for caulkers.” Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, told me, “It’s one of the top things he’s looking at.”

The idea has a lot to recommend it.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Delusional socialists.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Some serious pot smoking went on right before this article was written.

[hsalaw]

The rest of the stimulus bill has created a lot of jobs — 700,000 to 1.5 million

Seems the NYSlimes is counting "jobs" in the other 356,799,080,432 congressional districts in Arizona.

[festusbanjo]

The catch is that in Florida you can only apply for a new furnace and in Alaska you can only apply for a/c.

[noblejones]

Daddy, what was the New York Times?

[hsalaw]

The rest of the stimulus bill has created a lot of jobs — 700,000 to 1.5 million

Seems the NYSlimes is counting jobs in the other 356,799,080,432 congressional districts in Arizona.

[hsalaw]

Sorry for the double post. I didn’t think it went through the first time.

[Texas Eagle]

Obviously, the best way to stimulate more job creation is for Sarah Palin to write more books so the AP will have to hire more fact-checkers.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

rest of the stimulus bill has created a lot of jobs — 700,000 to 1.5 million, according to economists’ estimates

BWHAHAHAHA. Pssst...Times, nobody believes those numbers.

[Marty62]

These people are either the most ignorant people on earth are certifiably insane.

[Typical_Whitey]

All this crap is gonna backfire on them in a huge way.... The bills are coming due and he hasn’t even started collecting yet.... just wait Massive deflation ahead we will all be feeling the Obama pain for years to come.

[Lorianne]

Newspeak

[Carl LaFong]

What kind of mental condition leads presumably sentient humans to develop totally upside down clearly delusional thinking like this .
Have their brain cells just been totally destroyed by reflexive lefty ideological imprinting ?
It has to be a classifiable mental illness.

[Jackson Brown]

Since they post his email, why not tell it to the “author”... leonhardt@nytimes.com

[Rob the Ugly Dude]

This is like written from an alternate universe.

Now I know what reading Pravda during the heyday of the USSR was like.

[stylin19a]

I read his entire reference document twice and i'll be darned where it says the stimulus bill has created a lot of jobs — 700,000 to 1.5 million.

It does say:

"Businesses' reluctance to expand is clearest with respect to jobs. More than 250,000 jobs were lost on net again in September, bringing total losses since employment peaked nearly two years ago to nearly 8 million (after accounting for upcoming revisions to the employment estimates). For context, the peak-to-trough decline in employment during and after the 2001 recession was about 2 million jobs.

Job losses have moderated since the beginning of 2009, when they averaged closer to 700,000 per month, but this is entirely due to fewer layoffs; hiring continues to weaken (see Chart 4). Unless hiring revives, job growth will not resume and unemployment will continue to rise, depressing wages and ultimately short- circuiting consumer spending and the recovery itself.

[ricks_place]

EDMONDS car site analyzed the Cash-for-Clunkers data, determining it cost tax payers $22,000 for each car sold above what would have sold anyway.

What EDMONDS did NOT tell you about the Cash-for-Clunkers data, it cost tax payers $80,000 for each American car (Big Three) sold above what would have sold anyway. Cash-for-Clunkers helped employ a lot of foreign autoworkers with taxes paid by now unemployed autoworkers.

[mplsconservative]

These people are either the most ignorant people on earth are certifiably insane.

They're just liars for the cause, plain and simple.

[cranked]

>”....created...700,000 to 1.5 million, according to economists’ estimates...”<

LMAO! Delusional sonsofbiatches.
Put the Barry crack pipe and Kool aid down!

[KarlInOhio]

The DNC fax machine connects to the NY Times fax machine which is wired directly to the NY Times printing press. No human intervention is needed to print DNC press releases as news.