End the Recession: Throw Us All a Grand

Extravagant spending sprees at the mall? Not so much

(NEWSER) - Rather than the gluttonous splurge on flat-screen TVs and foreign vacations that Uncle Sam had envisioned, most Americans are plunking their rebate checks down on exorbitant gas and food costs--and their mounting debt. “The initial sense is that people are not running out the malls,” one economist told the New York Times. The sense of restraint may fail to buoy the economy as hoped. More»

He won't say recession, but treasury secretary comes close

(NEWSER) - Hank Paulson came closer than ever to conceding that the economy is in recession in a series of interviews yesterday, Reuters reports. Weary after a weekend in which he helped to broker Bear Stearns' fire sale to JPMorgan, the treasury secretary avoided the R-word but admitted: "There's no doubt that the American people know that the economy has turned down sharply. So to me much less important is the label that's placed on it today." More»

Says he expects more job creation once 'temporary shocks' pass

(NEWSER) - The Federal Reserve is ready and willing to pour more money into the economy if it has to, Ben Bernanke told Congress today. “The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected … implying a need for additional policy support,” Bernanke said. “The Federal Reserve remains prepared to respond.” More»

'Short term is when government can be most effective': Paul Krugman

(NEWSER) - Not only has the US economy been "stuck in a rut," but now a "destructive passivity has overtaken our discourse," writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . The common wisdom today is that there is nothing the government can do in the short run to help the economy, so we should concentrate on the long run. "This gets things exactly wrong," says the Nobel Prize winner. "The truth is that creating jobs in a depressed economy is something government could and should be doing." More»

(USER SUBMITTED) - Jim Surowiecki, writing for the New Yorker, says that the Obama stimulus package worked surprisingly well. Yet, Surowiecki notes, Obama gets little credit for it because he did the economically, rather than politically, expedient thing. Rather than lump-sum tax rebates, which consumers tend to horde, he gave taxpayers a small break in every paycheck, which they spent—stimulating the economy. By giving money to the states to retain jobs, rather than create new ones, he maintained stability and reduced unemployment. More»