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I am both an economist (M.A., U. of Chicago, 1968, in economics PhD program) and a lawyer (J.D., U. of Chicago, 1971). I had the good fortune to study under seven Nobel Laureates in economics (Milton Friedman, Robert Mundell, Theodore Schultz, George Stigler, Ronald Coase, Robert Fogel and Gary... More
My blog:
Wandering the Oceans
  • Why a New Stimulus Package is Premature 0 comments
    Nov 12, 2009 12:32 AM
    The reason is simple. We have not implemented most of the last stimulus package, yet.  Very few project funds have been awarded and paid out for work in progress, excluding the $83.8 billion in tax benefits.   See, http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx.  
    Of the total of $787 billion authorized as the stimulus package, more formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, only $194.5 billion has actually been paid out by all means whatsoever, that is only about 25% of the funds authorized.  If we exclude tax benefits from this figure, only $110 billion of the stimulus package or about 14% has actually been paid out for projects as of the end October 30, 2009.
    But this tells us nothing about how the projects are coming along. On that score, a pie chart shows us the number of stimulus projects in the program which have been completed, started but less than 50% completed, started but more than 50% completed and not started, as measured by on-going work in progress payments. 
    The data are shocking and set out below:
    4,110 Completed 
    25,932 Less than 50% complete
    5,063 More than 50% complete
    21,881 Not Started
    Of the total projects slated for the stimulus program, the vast majority are either not started or less than 50% complete. Less than 8% are completed. Almost 40% are not started. And over 45% are less than 50% complete.

    Surely, we don’t need a new stimulus program until we have implemented and tried this one.

    Disclosures: none
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