WHITE HOUSE: BIG STIMULUS IMPACT 'BEGINS NOW'

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Joeslogic, Jun 30, 2009.

  1. Joeslogic

    Joeslogic Active Member

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    WHITE HOUSE: BIG STIMULUS IMPACT 'BEGINS NOW'... *

    Romer upbeat on US economy

    By Krishna Guha in Washington

    Published: June 28 2009 20:57 | Last updated: June 28 2009 20:57

    The US economy will feel a substantial boost from the Obama administration’s emergency spending package over the next few months, says Christina Romer, a senior White House official, who has warned against tightening monetary and fiscal policy before recovery is well established.

    Oh Really? :confused:

    White House Moving The Stimulus Goalposts... *

    With public confidence in the stimulus package showing signs of ebbing, the Obama administration is continuing to sell its impact with nation-wide events and press appearances.

    Today brings this explanation, from Christina Romer, the chairman of the president’s Council on Economic Advisers: Stimulus spending, Romer told the Financial Times, is “going to ramp up strongly through the summer and the fall.”

    “We always knew we were not going to get all that much fiscal impact during the first five to six months. The big impact starts to hit from about now onwards,” Romer said.

    We’ve known for some time that the money takes a while to get out the door.

    But top Obama advisers haven’t always been so cautious in predicting how long the stimulus would take to be felt.

    Back in February, with Congress moving swiftly to approve President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, White House budget director Peter Orszag said the benefits of the stimulus would “take weeks to months” to be felt.

    Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, was even more optimistic: “You'll see the effects begin almost immediately,” Summers told CNN in February.

    Just last month, Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, joined administration officials in asserting that the stimulus was already working, despite rising unemployment rates.

    “The idea here is that, yes, the unemployment rate is rising, but it would be rising more quickly [without the bill],” Bernstein said on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line.” “We're spending about $1 billion a day -- and, by the way, with very careful oversight -- and that's creating, again, economic activity that would not have occurred in the absence of this plan. That's the essential point.”

    Then there’s the case of the now-famous chart, prepared in January by the Obama transition team to forecast employment rates with and without a stimulus bill in place.

    Obama’s economic advisers saw unemployment cresting at just below 8 percent with the stimulus in place; without it, they forecast the national rate topping out around 9 percent.

    The stimulus, of course, did pass, though the national unemployment rate is now 9.4 percent. Two weeks ago, President Obama predicted that unemployment will top 10 percent this year.

    Warren Buffett to CNBC: U.S. Economy In "Shambles" .. No Signs of Recovery


    reuters
    Gloomy U.S. consumers clip housing recovery hopes


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June, figures released on Tuesday showed, suggesting the 18-month-long recession had yet to loosen its grip on the economy.

    A separate report on April house prices in major cities offered some encouraging signs that the worst of the housing slump may be over, but that was not enough to lift investors' spirits. Another crop of economic data showed business activity in New York City and the Midwest remained weak, while retail chains slogged through a rough June.

    Billionaire investor George Soros added to the cautionary tone, saying that rising borrowing costs posed a threat to any eventual economic recovery.

    "As markets revive, fear of inflation will drive up interest rates, which will choke off recovery," he said at a breakfast hosted by the Wall Street Journal.

    Major stock market indexes fell after the Conference Board's consumer confidence index showed households felt gloomier about their current situation and less optimistic about what the coming months might bring.


    ap
    Stocks down on dip in consumer confidence
    US stocks move sharply lower on last day of 2Q after unexpected dip in consumer confidence




    As Predicted, State-Run Media Props Up Failing Obama Economy


    BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
    RUSH: "US consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June." That's from Reuters. "Unexpectedly!" Every bit of economic news is "unexpected." What were they expecting? A big rebound? Let's go to the audio sound bites. I want to take you back to me on this program, January 9th of this year.

    RUSH ARCHIVE: We're going to start seeing stories that will not be true, that feature man-on-the-street interviews with people whose lives are starting to get a little bit better, they see the light at the end of the tunnel now, they go on more job interviews and they're doing a little bit better. The Drive-Bys will start setting the stage to create the impression in the minds of people that we're coming back, when we are not. Just as they try to set up this mood that we're going to hell in a handbasket when we're not, notice how that works. That convinces people, the old saw about, "Well, I'm doing fine but I'm hearing on the news my neighbor is about to lose his job, we're in trouble here." So how does it play when you're out of work but you hear that other people are getting jobs? If you are an Obama voter, you think your time is just around the corner, you gotta be patient 'cause he's already working, his plan is already working. If you think a demagogic, flowery spoken candidate or president with an accomplice media can't convince people things are great when they're bad you got another thing coming. If they can convince people things are horrible when they're good, the opposite's also possible. To this day people who are alive and voted for Roosevelt think he's the greatest president we ever had, and not because of World War II, because of Social Security, because of Medicare. So don't doubt me.

    RUSH: That was all the way back on January 9th of this year, before the Bamster even rode into office. Now, let's go to this morning, CNN's Newsroom, the anchor Betty Nguyen spoke with Your Money host Christine Romans about the economy. And Betty Nguyen said, "Hey, Christine! Explain this. How did we do in the first half of the year?"
     

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