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Do the charts include the .7% downward revision in GDP?
Charts and graphs that will finally make it clear that the stimulus is working
That chart -- or, more accurately, collection of charts -- comes from Jackie Calmes and Michael Cooper, who pulled together a bunch of private forecasts to find what the analysts trusted by the all-powerful market thought the stimulus's effect had been. The answer was unambiguous: It cushioned, but did not wipe out, the effects of the recession. And that's not Democrats talking or Republicans talking. It's private analysts who, as Brad DeLong points out, are paid to deliver accurate information to their clients.
The electorate, of course, rewards actual conditions, not conditions relative to a hypothetical scenario in which ameliorative policies weren't adopted. But it's evidence that there's no actionable coherence clause in American politics that critics of the stimulus can argue against the effort on the grounds that joblessness is too high. If you think joblessness is too high and something should be done to lower it, then you think we should have more stimulus, not less.
By Ezra Klein | November 25, 2009; 9:30 AM ET
Do the charts include the .7% downward revision in GDP?
To be completely honest, I am not sure. However, the point isn't to illustrate accurate projections of the GDP or job loss figure but rather the consensus among private economic firms that the stimulus did in fact make things better.
I think you'd get more mileage out of comparing Obama's recent hawkishness on deficit spending to Herbert Hoover, like John Judis did today in TNR. Projections are just projections.
Hooverbama...
I like that!
Care to provide me a link? I don't expect any action out of the administration on that front for some time but it would be good for them to make long range provisions once we're in a better situation economically as a nation.
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