Tufte’s Short Post # 7: Obama’s stimulus package was mostly pork and shouldn’t have been expected to work well

Obama’s stimulus package was mostly pork and shouldn’t have been expected to work well. Larry Summers argued before the inauguration that at most there was $300B of (potentially) stimulative spending that could be dreamed up. The scope of this recession, which probably exceeded the likely effects of what the package spent (even if it was all stimulative) would clearly swamp this smaller value.

There’s an arthouse film called Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. You’re getting Twenty-Six Short Posts from Dr. Tufte. :) These are on why it’s difficult to understand the current macroeconomic situation. Joe Baker is not a macroeconomist, but we all do a little bit of everything at SUU, so he has to teach principles of macroeconomics sometimes. The other day he asked for pointers about summing up for his students why we can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with the economy. I came up with 26 reasons, most of which have been discussed in class, and all of which are now required.