Archive - Jan 18, 2008

Date

The Folly of an Economic Stimulus Package

Posted January 18, 2008 - 3:02pm by Will Hinton

I constantly underestimate how little our politicians in this country understand about economics. The latest talk about needing a economic stimulus package is a great example.

Russell Roberts said this on NPR yesterday about stimulus packages:

The money has to come from somewhere. If you raise taxes to fund the plan, the people who are taxed are poorer and they'll spend less. If you borrow money to fund the plan, the people who buy the government bonds have less money to spend and that offsets the stimulus. It's like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool and dumping it into the shallow end. Funny thing—the water in the shallow end doesn't get any deeper.

Richardson presidential bid and the effect on the race overall

Posted January 18, 2008 - 12:14am by Expat Teacher

It has been 1 week since Governor Richardson gave up his effort to be the Democratic nominee and I have been doing a lot of soul searching and trying to figure out what I had been doing for the last 15 months. It has been very difficult to figure out what the point was. What about the hours I spent recruiting people online? Or the "sick" days I took to work on local events? Or the money I spent on phone bills and swag?

Was it all wasted?

My initial feelings were that it was all a waste. Sure, I made some nice contacts and had some unique experiences, but what did the Richardson candidacy achieve? It didn't achieve the goal it set out to - win the White House. Therefore it was a failure.