You have GOT to be Kidding Me!

[FinanceDude]

CEOs urge $500B stimulus from Obama - Economy in Turmoil- msnbc.com

Now the stupidity appears to be spreading. Giving Americans more money isn't going to work unless they can GET CREDIT..........

So, folks will be able to take their $1500 Obama rebate check to a GM dealer and get a car? I doubt it..........

[HFWR]

Quote:

A second stimulus package should "emphasize investment in infrastructure," such as roads, bridges and other construction, as well as alternative energy projects, the CEOs said. The stimulus also should include permanent tax cuts rather than one-time tax rebates, Ferguson said, because permanent cuts are more likely to be spent and to boost the economy.

Where in the article is a $1500 rebate check, or GM, mentioned?

Here's another cheerleader for "reflation":

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/122582

[Notmuchlonger]

Sweeeet 1500 ! Vegas baby WHO WHOOOO!

[bbbamI]

Yeah, we need to stimulate Vegas.....

[tryan]

Yeah, these "stimulus" packages are like paying yourself for cutting the grass.

[Notmuchlonger]

Screw tomorrow live for today! All on 7 baby.

[Bikerdude]

I'll take all the stimulus I can get.

[socca]

The most annoying thing (to me) about this economic 'crisis' is how ad-hoc the govt's response has been. It seems that our illustrious economic leaders just keep blindly firing away with whatever economic weapons happen to be in their arsenal, hoping that something will slay the beast. This is very unsatisfying. i see a couple of options:

1) produce a world economic model so detailed and accurate that you could select a remedy secure in the knowledge that it will actually solve the problem, or

2) design a particularly desirable world economic model, and implement regulatory mechanisms that would 'force' world economic activity to conform to the model. The model could then be used as a basis for predictive modeling.

Both of these options seem impossible at this point.

Option #2 appears to be the centrally planned & controlled economy dreaded by free-marketeers, yet it's strange how many former free-marketeers are now clamoring for gov't bailouts.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by socca Option #2 appears to be the centrally planned & controlled economy dreaded by free-marketeers, yet it's strange how many former free-marketeers are now clamoring for gov't bailouts.

This is the irony. All this talk of free-market, capitalist, conservative values. These are precisely the folks who got us into this mess. They over-levereged, then packaged crap into derivatives of dubious value. All the while, regulators and ratings agencies were either asleep, or winking and nodding that it was all good. And of course, Joe Sixback didn't want to miss the parade, so he leveraged into the biggest McMansion he could steal, encouraged by more winking, nodding, and the nearly complete disregard for good, old stodgy banking practices.

Now we have a divergence: one group of FMCCs want the "government", that being us taxpayers, to save them from themselves. The other group is indignantly saying no bailouts, let them fail, that's how it's supposed to work. Only most were whistling past the graveyard as all this craziness was unfolding.

Fox guarding the henhouse...

[chinaco]

How about just reducing the 2008 income tax bill! Give everyone a one time deduction. Oh I forgot. That would not put my money in the hands of others who didn't pay taxes to begin with.

I look at it like this: Govt gives everyone $1500. The $1500 I get is my money. The $1500 someone else gets is my money also (I just have to pay it in future years). Whats up with that?

That economic stimulus is sounding more like a R3ctal probe.

[catdance62]

Well, that stimulus will help my business! We were busy like it was income tax return season during the last stimulus! Bring it on!!!