Nobody Seems Impressed

I chuckled as I returned to an article from early December by Paul Krugman about how:

In past financial crises — the stock market crash of 1987, the aftermath of Russia’s default in 1998 — the Fed has been able to wave its magic wand and make market turmoil disappear. But this time the magic isn’t working.

I thought he was right about that in December and I thought that the same could be said of our new stimulus package. It’s funny how this urgent bipartisan action has not made anyone very happy. The liberal Paul Krugman asks Who gets stimulated? while conservative Frank Staheli says:

A $150 billion “stimulus package” is to America’s economy nothing but a light snack. It will stomp this “stimulus package” dead in a couple of weeks and then move on, undaunted, toward oblivion, its $53 trillion of unfunded expenditures gallantly in tow.

I have heard arguments that the money is less important than the boost in consumer confidence – from the sound of things it’s not likely to be much of a boost.