Over-stimulated

Lots of stimulus in the news, if you know what I mean. Assuming it passes, let's look at possible outcomes:

• Quick recovery: good thing we passed the bill - otherwise it would've been longer.
• Not quick recovery: good thing we passed the bill - otherwise it would've been longer.

The Great Depression was 10 years. How long do we figure that it would've run if not for the New Deal? Who knows?

I've said this before, but it's a good thing we bailed out Bear, Freddie and Fannie, since we otherwise might have lost Lehman, or needed to bail out AIG. And it's a good thing that we bailed out AIG since we might otherwise have needed 700 billion in TARP spending. And it's a good thing that we spend 700 billion on TARP, since otherwise the auto industry might have flopped and we might be considering 800 billion in Keynesian demand-side stimulus. And here's hoping that the 800 billion passes, because if it doesn't, then we might have to.... uh... what goes in the blank? Start teaching HS students the ins and outs of subsistance farming?

~p