Guess the stimulative effect. (Not a sex thread)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Okay, economic stimulus is the goal to prevent a depression.

You have 1 trillion dollars to use (which we seem to)

What would the effect on the economy be if you sent $4000.00 to every American citizen? (on edit: I said $3400 then realized there are less than 300 million citizens. 4K is closer.)

A family of five gets a check for $20,000.

And everyone gets their checks at the same time... let's say March 1, 2009. Bam!

Here's the question...

Could anything do more, dollar for dollar, to create demand and stop deflation in the short term?

(actually, giving $40,000 to every tenth citizen might be more stimulative, but that would seriously piss off 90% of the population.)

Yet no one will even propose such a dramatic (and boy would it be dramatic!) plan because it would smell to much like ordinary people getting something.

[leftstreet]

1. $3400.00 won't even buy a dental crown

Not to piss on your idea, I see the point you're making.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Hence the every-tenth or every-hundredth notion

Giving 1% of the population $340,000 would lead to different patterns of demand.

You need a new dentist, BTW. My dentist is very expensive but not that high!

Unless this is mostly a price of gold thing.

[SoCalDem]

2. First..eliminate family incomes of over $250K

makes the "split" a bit better:)

[madmom]

3. My SO has been saying send every man, woman, and child a check for $40,000. It would be

cheaper and nothing would stimulate the economy more.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. I hope my math isn't wrong.

I think 40,000 times 300 million is more like 10 trillion than 1 trillion.

But I must admit the zeroes make me dizzy.

[nebenaube]

6. How about we just roll back the bankruptcy changes

How about we just roll back the bankruptcy changes so that people can walk away from the high-interest credit card debt and start over. We bailed the financial sector out anyway so it shouldn't hurt them a bit. Better yet, let's just cancel the debt period! It's the interest charges that are sucking the economy dry.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. My "real" stimulus plan is refinancing a trillion of consumer debt. at 8%

That's what strikes me as the best move, and may be even more stimulative (or at least a little less inflationary) than the money-riot in the OP.

[nebenaube]

8. That's a great idea that I think one could actually sell...

I'd sign up for it that's for sure.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. It's in the "too obvious to ever happen" category