Psycho Talk: Fox’s Napolitano incorrect about Beck rally numbers
Judge Andrew Napolitano was quickly corrected by Fox News' Steve Doocy after falsely claiming that Glenn Beck assembled the "largest political gathering in the past 40 years."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Muslim holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks a "disrespectful, disgraceful act." We'll talk about it.
New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step Posted on 11/21/2009
Since unemployment is at 10.2 percent, economists see confirmation of their warnings that the $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed into law last February was way too small.
They say the economy needs a second big infusion.
New Jobs Bill The White House and Congressional leaders are talking about a new "jobs bill."
Stimulus Working With about 25% of the stimulus money has gone out the door after 9 months, economists say that the stimulus package is working.
They say the legislation is helping an economy in free fall a year ago to grow again and shed fewer jobs than it otherwise would.
President Obama's promise to "save or create" about 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 is roughly on track.
Economists say the White House and Congress were right to structure the package as a mix of tax cuts and spending, rather than just tax cuts as Republicans prefer or just spending as many Democrats do.
Martin Feldstein Comments Martin Feldstein, a conservative Harvard economist who served in the Reagan administration, said the problem with the package was that some of its tax cuts and spending programs were of a variety that did little to spur the economy.
Feldstein said, "There should have been more direct federal spending that would have added to aggregate demand."
He said, "Temporary tax cuts and one-time transfers to seniors were largely saved and didn't stimulate spending."
Mark Zanid Comments Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, said that among Democrats in the White House and Congress, there was a considerable amount of hand-wringing that it was too small.
Zandi said, "I sympathized with that argument."
He said "Even so, the stimulus is doing what it was supposed to do - it is contributing to ending the recession."
Zandi cited the economy's third-quarter expansion by a 3.5 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate.
He said, "In my view, without the stimulus, G.D.P. would still be negative and unemployment would be firmly over 11 percent. And there are a little over 1.1 million more jobs out there as of October than would have been out there without the stimulus."
Infrustructure Pays Off Federal aid to state governments rank high in economists' overview of the stimulus package.
Moody's reports every dollar of infrastructure spending means $1.57 in economic activity.
Moody's says general aid to states carries a $1.41 "bang" for each federal buck.
Food Stamps Pays Off Moody's says for every dollars spent on food stamps brings $1.74.
Unemployment Check Pay Off Moody's says for every dollar spent on unemployment checks we get back $1.61 in economic activity, because recipients quickly spend their benefits on goods and services.
Tax Cut Don't Pay Off Mooday's research says most temporary tax cuts cost more than the stimulus they provide.
A tax credit for homebuyers brought back 90 cents of stimulus for each dollar of tax subsidy.
Extra deductions for businesses' net operating losses brought back 21 cents for each dollar of subsidy.
Economists said Republicans' recent proposals to rescind unspent money would be a mistake.
JPMorgan Economist James Glassman, a senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Company, said, "If we could be absolutely convinced that the growth we're getting is for reasons beyond the help the government is giving, then that would make sense. But the fact is we can't be certain of that."
