Should There Be More Economic Stimulus Payments? Including a 4th Stimulus check?

See this article on a potential 4th economic stimulus check.

_____________________________

In a recent town hall, following the approval of yet another home buyer credit extension, the President said his economic stimulus programs did their job by staving off another Great Depression.

The administration often touts that the stimulus package helped create hundreds of thousands of jobs and propped up social programs such as unemployment benefits.

But with much of that money spent and lawmakers reluctant to approve another big round of spending, concerns are rising about what will replace it in the short term to keep the economy moving.

The President did acknowledge public skepticism about the effectiveness of last year’s $787 billion stimulus bill, but  joked he could have sent people a check with his picture on it.

Instead, the stimulus bill gave most workers a tax cut in their paycheck. A check in the mail might have been better politics, Obama said, but the tax cut in the weekly paycheck worked better economically.

With US unemployment hovering around 10%, weak stock markets and home sales plunging, the Obama administration  is still hoping to use stimulus programs to accelerate the US economic recovery. However, this tactic remains in stark contrast to European countries’ recent austerity measures , and there is concern that further stimulus may adversely affect the US recovery.

Economists are getting increasingly concerned over President Obama’s desire to spend more to encourage growth and lower unemployment. U.S. debt has hit about $13 trillion and 2011’s budget deficit is heading toward $1.56 trillion. Despite the uncertainty surrounding President Obama’s stimulus tactics, the U.S. government has shown little sign of slowing down spending.

What do you think? With the nation facing the very real prospect of a double-dip recession as growth and optimism wanes, should more federal home, car and work stimulus programs be put in place for 2010-2011 to keep the economy afloat?

Or is it time to end the government lifelines and let free market capitalism take over where only the strongest and most careful survive? Have your say on poll below (email readers see poll here) and leave a comment if you’ve got more to say (keep it civil please!)

Subscribe via email or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube to get the latest news and updates

2 thoughts on “Should There Be More Economic Stimulus Payments? Including a 4th Stimulus check?”

  1. Unfortunately, we have been put into a situation where we need more stimulus. Otherwise we may fall into a 1930s situation. The key here is for policy makers to learn what was done wrong and not to commit the same errors. The Federal Reserve needs to stop manipulating the price of money. In Econ 101 we learn what happens when prices are controlled by studying rent control and the minimum wage. If the fed funds rate in 2003 had been kept at 3% when housing and autos were doing fairly well we would have never had the housing bubble. Would unemployment have increased? Probably a bit but nowhere near the double digits we are moving to today.
    Not more stimulus soon will compound our problem. We need to think hard about the type of stimulus. If it doesn’t create jobs and is just seen as temporary its not going to fool anybody and it won’t improve the situation.

    Reply
  2. This might be proof that too much government intervention is what exasperates economic despair.

    All of this government behavior has pretty much killed all of my faith in fiat money. Mind you, I’m still going to be buying things with it. I’m just in a short position. :P

    Reply

Leave a Comment