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Did Obama's agenda hobble the recovery?
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Sep 05, 2010 05:05pm |
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| Category | General |
| News Date | Thursday, September 2, 2010 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | America can't shake its recession blues, even if the recession is officially over. The painfully slow recovery is typical in the wake of a financial crisis like the Wall Street collapse, economists say. Still, the hard times are so persistent that I have been feeling twinges of guilt about President Obama's stimulus package.
Many of Obama's ideas for a new economic foundation ended up in that package: expanded broadband coverage, competitive grants for innovative schools, computerized medical records, more science research, more investment in clean energy. I wanted all that, and the stimulus would miraculously make it possible. Using it as a vehicle, we could lay those foundations for growth in the second month of the Obama administration.
But lately I've been second-guessing that rush to turn campaign pledges into reality. The jobless rate has been so high for so long. Was it a mistake to shoehorn Obama's longer-range economic plans into a package intended to jump-start the economy? If that money had been applied to more traditional stimulus, with shorter-term impact, would more people have jobs? Would economists be less concerned about the potential for a double-dip recession?
After talking to five economists, I can give you the bottom line: Spending the money differently probably wouldn't have changed our circumstances much. But the economists took diverse paths to that conclusion, and they have varying opinions about where to go from here. |
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