Nobel Prize Krugman says US and EU stimulus packages insufficient

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: MercoPress

"The United States is not doing enough to fight the crisis, and Europe is doing a bit less than half as much as the US. So no, it's inadequate" Krugman said after a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

The talks came just two days before EU leaders were set to meet in the Belgian capital to discuss how to pull the bloc out of recession and reform global capitalism.

US President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package amounts to 787 billion US dollars, equivalent to about 2.5% of the nation's annual GDP, spread over three years.

The EU corresponding efforts total about 400 billion Euros (521 billion US dollars), or 3.3% of GDP, over two years. About half of this amount is made up of so-called "automatic stabilizers" - non- discretionary public spending, such as for unemployment benefits, that naturally increases during a downturn.



Read more: http://en.mercopress.com/2009/03/18/nobel-prize-krugman-says-us-and-eu-stimulus-packages-insufficient

[yourout]

1. I said it should have been triple what it was when they passed it.

Small enough to fail and big enough for the Pukes to beat us over the head with.

[theoldman]

2. The stimulus package is an investment in jobs.

The idea is to spend what is needed and not more so you start with a minimum. No one knows how much is needed. It is easer to build up and impossible to cut back.

[yourout]

3. While I agree in principal the problem is every time you go back to the well the noise from the....

right gets louder.

[Oregone]

5. Not really

The "stimulus" is meant to stimulate. It is to create an artificial demand due to the condition of "deficient demand". The government must spend, and must do so wildly, to compensate for the lack of private spending. A bi-product may be the creation of jobs, but its intention is to revive the economic system (demand, spending, jobs, etc) much like a defibrillator revives a heart. It isn't merely to create jobs here and there (its more complex than that).

There are many, many educated, scholarly economists calling for trillions of dollars of spending. Although you say no one knows the amount, maybe you should check with them first (being that some groups have a finite estimate).

[Doremus]

7. Well, Krugman seemed pretty confident in saying the stimulus should have been at least $1T

The amount wasn't chosen at random. It represents the amount of projected loss of GDP for one year.

[antimatter98]

4. Why not just sell America to AIG and China, and let them run it. Obama can't. n/t

[stillcool]

8. your buddy Bush already did that...

now we have to try and get it back.

[Kittycat]

6. Maybe Krugman needs to start paying the bills then.

Yes, we know - it's not enough. But for fucks sake - will it ever be enough? No, we're going to have to struggle through this for a while, but I'd rather something being done than nothing.

[stillcool]

9. it's necessary..it's not necessary..

it's not enough, it's too much. The world is going to hell in a hand basket.