Nouriel Roubini has some advice:
U.S. should enact $400 billion stimulus [Bloomberg].
The U.S. government should enact an economic stimulus package of between $400 billion and $500 billion before the end of the Bush administration in January, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said.
But what a stimulus!
“The only way to increase aggregate demand is going to be through” government spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure, Roubini said at a Bloomberg conference in New York. “We need a huge plan, $300 billion is not going to be enough. I think we’re going to need a plan of $400 billion to $500 billion.”
Roads! Bridges! Tunnels! -- erm, could we get that in writing, so the money doesn't wind up going for something else?
“If we don’t do that fiscal stimulus today, three months from now, six months from now the collapse of the real economy is going to be so severe that anything we’re doing today to recapitalize the financial system is going to be undone,” Roubini said.
Shorter Roubini: we need a real stimulus to keep the $700 billion we've already tossed in from being wasted effort.
“Financial markets are becoming totally unhinged,” he said. “Fundamentals don’t matter, valuation doesn’t matter the only thing that matters right now is flows, and the flows out there are sellers, and no buyers.”
“We’re entering literally a vicious circle where economies are spinning down, financial markets are spinning lower, and the policy makers in my view -- and that’s my biggest fear -- have lost control of what’s going on in financial markets,” Roubini said.
[my emphasis]
Hey, policy makers! Is anybody listening? I'm looking at you, Democrats.
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From a front-page report on Roubini's appearance Tuesday in a New York State Assembly hearing, in Metro:
[my emphasis]
Someone's noticed how much state and local governments have been stretched to the breaking point!
[I still can't get the audio on those Bloomberg videos for some reason. I'll update when/if I can find out more specifics.]
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
Who are these "Democrats" of whom you speak?
"You'd better get this straight. Wise up before it's too late." -- Sister Sledge
JFK has been shot, we miss him a lot
He always knew what to do
-- Philly Cream
Correction: I'm looking FOR you, Democrats.
I know I left you around here... somewhere...
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
Good idea, wrong emphasis....
First off, making major improvements to "road and bridges" is counter productive toward "getting green" -- if transportation infrastructure is to be part of the package, then the emphasis should be on public transit.
But more crucially, these kinds of projects require a lot of planning/engineering and also need a lot of skilled labor...skills that can't be learned overnight.
I'd suggest a different focus -- urban and inner-ring suburban housing and parks and schools. For instance, replace windows and add insulation and install efficient (AMERICAN made) heating systems and appliances throughout the urban and inner ring suburbs would be labor intensive, and is something that could be organized quickly, and stimulate the economy where that stimulation is most needed.
We don't actually know
... what Roubini said. (Roads and bridges is not necessarily a bad thing, either. Maintenance is badly needed, provides jobs, and mass transit uses them too. I would not say build new ones.) It would be totally consistent with his stated aims for the government to be pushing green infrastructure work of another type as well.
The point is, this type of investment rather than throwing more capital into the banking system.
BTW, and OMG I'm linking the NY Post, but great cartoon this morning.
[Edit: I notice that link will lead to Sean Delonas's most recent cartoon, not necessarily the one I want. So you'll have to use the little calendar menu device at the bottom and set it to the 30th of October if you're looking at this later on.]
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
it's separate--cities/states are begging for help now,
and our infrastructure is and has been crumbling for years.
I'd say this will happen on both--
"Obama to city: Drop Dead" (a la Ford back in the 70s) -- no help for any cities at all from DC.
And he'll do "private/public partnership" contracting bs on infrastructure -- give Halliburton-ish companies billions of our money to do the work.