By Jason M on May 19, 2009 | Reply

Yeah Sure
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By Joe Finkle on May 19, 2009 | Reply

No. The stimulus program is 3 pronged. One prong is this stimulus bill, which was designed to create or protect jobs. Another is the TARP program, which is designed to free up the frozen credit market. The third is the foreclosure plan, which they're still working on. There's a few options being debated internally before they announce a real plan.

All three prongs will likely require more than a single bill or plan, just so you're not too surprised when that comes up. The first TARP bill passed under Bush and half was squandered with no results. The details of the second half will be out soon (should have been out already), but it will likely eventually evolve into nationalizing a few banks, something they're trying to avoid but most experts who've studied similar credit crises in Japan and Sweden say will be necessary. (Sweden nationalized the banks and came out of their crisis quickly. Japan acted too slowly and had what is widely known as "the lost decade"). Obama's administration said there shear number of banks in the US makes nationalization a bad policy, but there is speculation that the TARP program's new idea of rating banks will be the first step toward determining which ones need to be nationalized, which can fail without catastrophe, and which can survive on their own.

Similarly, the stimulus does not spend nearly as large a portion of our GDP as we'll probably eventually need to. If Obama knows what he's doing, and he seems to, he'll be preparing now to spend more when we need it. The first bill pumps money into most of the areas that can spend it now. In 4 or 5 months, there will be more such areas and don't be surprised to see another half a trillion. Remember, we got out of the great depression by spending 120% of our GDP during WWII. We probably can't do that now because our debt is already so enormous. The 13% we have now is already well beyond what we want to spend, but China's 25% they committed over a 2 year span months ago is probably smarter.

I don't know much about the foreclosure plan, since it hasn't been announced yet, but given the estimated cost, there will probably be an initial plan to slow the foreclosures, then later another plan to deal with the ones the first plan couldn't handle. I don't think it could pass any other way.
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By Robin on May 19, 2009 | Reply

the stimulus was invented to assist in the attainment of political and economic power over the citizens of the USA

if you are trying for satire, i apologize,

satire usually escapes me
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By Deep Thought on May 19, 2009 | Reply

No, it was designed to stimulate the economy. It's now up to the Fed to fix the forclosure crisis. And they are estimating it will cost about 2.5 trillion dollars.
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By jokr8790 on May 19, 2009 | Reply

Well, I would have preferred an outline of the details before he signs it, but the stimulus bill doesn't become law until after its signed by the President.
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By Greg on May 19, 2009 | Reply

Yes, he needs to get his buddies paid off first. That's all this bill is…a paypack barrel of pork that Democrats have been dreaming of for years and years. Just look at what's in it….it's all earmarks. Obama said there are none attached…well, didn't need to attach anything to this piece of garbage.

Obama….the wrong guy for the job.
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By Buttface McPoops on May 19, 2009 | Reply

The first one was.
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By Boss H on May 19, 2009 | Reply

actually, the bail out is designed to infuse the economy with cash to prevent banks from failing and to reduce job loss.
The foreclosure crisis is much more complexed than just dumping cash into the economy.
Even if credit is started rolling again which is what the current stimulus is designed to do, there is still a problem with those foreclosures that are hanging in limbo, because even if the banks remove the occupants, they can't resell the property anyway, because nobody wants to buy an asset that is falling in value.
there are more than just one aspect to the foreclosure problem.

First we have to keep people in their homes.
After that we have to prevent the banks form taking huge losses.
Third, we have to prevent the values from falling more, so people will purchase them.
After that, we have to restore consumer and investor confidence to prevent job loss that will lead to more forclosures.

Some people think there is a way to just create one bill that will cure everything by giving tax cuts to the rich. That is a pipe-dream of those who don't understand that the economy is far more complexed than just the rich having money and creating jobs.

Cash flow has to be restored.
Investor and consumer confidence has to be restored.
Production in America needs to be restored.
and there is no magic wand to wave to do this.
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By Roland on May 19, 2009 | Reply

You have to be kidding right? So far most stimulus have been implemented (with the tax payer money) to save some failing banks that way they can assign later BIG bonuses(3.8 Billion Merril Lynch, AIG several millions) with the stimulus money!! This stimulus will take care of a few forclosures issues but most of the money will go to save some failures and allow them to give themselves bonuses. Same system with the 2 past wars. 50 billions approved every 4 months , with no way to track the money, going into some pokets and under tables. The pharao times has not changed just the suit has .
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By AngelaTC on May 19, 2009 | Reply

No. And neither was TARP.
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By Jessica on May 19, 2009 | Reply

No, the stimulus bill, or now Obama refers to it as the spending bill, was originally supposed to create jobs, not to fix the foreclosures. You are thinking of the first 700 billion we borrowed a few months ago.
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By Daniel on May 19, 2009 | Reply

The stimulus is filled with pork that's not aimed at stimulating the economy. The endowment for the arts gets 50 million. Another 30 million goes to protect some mouse in a wetland. A problem is spending so much is going to devalue the dollar, and so much of this stimulus has nothing to do with stimulating the economy. 3 billion goes to community action committees, most all of which ACORN gets. They focus on registering low income minorities to vote, most of which vote Democrat. It's political payback and strengthening the Democrat rolls at the same time.

This first nearly trillion dollars is just the first round of increasing the U.S. debt that will increase the burden of future citizens. With large Democrat majorities in the house and senate Obama can pass most anything. He will socialize medicine. The government is already becoming the major investor in the banking system so that we're headed for a social democracy like Europe, where the governments own the banks. Obama's fixing the economy will be through socialism.

Congress was in such a hurry to sign the stimulus bill, at the president's urging, that most never had a chance to read the final bill before voting. But Obama has taken a three day vacation and will not sign it until Tuesday; so, there's not that big of a hurry to fix the economy after all.

Also, it's the democrats who caused this banking crisis. The Clinton administration enacted legislation forcing lending institutions to lend to high risk individuals that couldn't afford to repay the loans. Obama frequently speaks of "inheriting" this crisis, like the Bush administration caused it. But Bush tried eight times to reign in Fanny May and Freddie Mac and the Democrats in congress blocked it.

You'll find this youtube video interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu2r6CpbQAM&NR=1
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By Zsolt H on May 19, 2009 | Reply

Unfortunately the presently suggested solutions for the crisis are ignoring the main reasons for it developing in the first place.
We see the same old reactions and solutions, which might have worked before, but cannot work this time, when the world has changed completely. We live in a completely interconnected interdependent world now, where isolated, protectionist solutions are making things actually worse.
Here is a short sarcastic video on the usual politician reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jw9aVMtfQY
If you want to try your hand in helping our politicians offering a solution for the crisis, here is an actual competition going on.
"Know the solution to the crisis?":
http://www.kabbalahblog.info/2009/02/know-the-solution-to-the-crisis/
All the best.
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