Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Obama and the Stimulus
We watched President Obama’s Press release from the other night. Do you agree with the stimulus package, why or why not? Were the President’s arguments convincing? Were his economic arguments valid? Do we question any of his conclusions? Are there other questions we should be asking as we debate the passage of this bill? Are there questions we have regarding the stimulus package /the economy…. Feel free to respond to other comments from the class.
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The role of government in an economy should be to protect private property, give the marketplace means to do business(roadways, mass transit, general infanstructure- not including power, water, ec.), and protect general business interests(ie natural resources), not to provide jobs for the unemployed or create new government controlled power sources.
ReplyDeleteI completely hate this idea that we're in the same situation as the great depression. Some would say we needed the "new deal" to get out of the depression so we need something similar now. First of all, the great depression was fueled by much more than a credit crunch, and had several factors uncontrollable to humans (the dust bowl for example). Most banks should've painfully learned their lesson that you need to make smart decisions when lending money, plain and simple. Second, the new deal didn't even work that well. It wasn't until world war II that we really broke out of the depression. Lastly, THIS IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. In 8th grade social studies you'll learn that capitalism has 4 stages- peak, recession, depression, and ascension. When the peak is big, the following depression will be just as big. I personally dont see the roaring 20's on the same level as the 1998-2008 era... But anyways; Why should we compromise the ideals of capitalism(if we can call still call it capitalism)on stopping something that is inherently supposed to happen? We shouldn't. We should just let it be and go on with our lives as usual as we can. Once people decide we arent on the verge of an economic apocalypse and they start spending instead of saving again, we can get over this little bump in the road.
On a lighter note, if you have money laying around there is no better time to invest in the market than right now. Statistically in periods of rapid decline where %40+ of the entire market volume is lost, the market index increases on average %9-12 every following decade- a large portion of which derives form the first few years thereafter.
So i'd say go out and spend your money and make smart investment decisions and everything will be fine. You can all calm down now.
-Ryan Leaf
I think that Obama's speech was very good, even though he did seem to have certain difficulty in speaking, i think the knowledge he has is just having difficulty coming out. Overall, i agree with the stimulus plan. I think it would indeed help get us out of the mess we have today. another valid point that he makes is that if we don't do anything, it will only get worse, and i don't know about the rest of you, but i don't want to pay for someone's indecisiveness. I applaud Mr. Obama's effort and ambition! I am curious to see what will happen with this plan.
ReplyDeleteThe economic plan for recovery is a really truly very good thing and something that we desperately need. Its what the money is being used for that makes me nervous. Instead of bailing out just the huge businesses we should be helping out the small ones, that's what this country was all about, having small business become large businesses. I had read a stat earlier this year when the 700 billion proposal was passed and it said that each person living the USA that was 18 and older would have gotten $300,000 in cash. I could have really used that money as most of it would have been used to pay off my loans for college. Instead it went to greedy business owners who instead of fixing the problems with their business, went on lavish trips, rebuilt their offices, or bought new private jets and $8,000 garbage cans. This is just wrong and the money would have been put to better use by the people. It would have caused a spending spree and the market would have somewhat fixed. The people would have went out and spent the money on things they need/want, such as new cars if they have old/used ones, or food. They also would have paid off their debts and that would have allowed the loaning institutions to make up the heavy losses they incurred. The flow of money would have to continue though, in order for it to work, with the businesses using that money to either hire more people or to buy more supplies to build products. Once it's stable it should be ok to start taking the excess money back out to bring back up the value of the dollar. I cant wait to see what Obama is going to do with his college proposal, seen as how one of his big ticket items is getting kids into college cheaper and making it more affordable.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Obama on this matter. We need to do something. By sitting around, we will just get worse and worse into this economic spirial. Sure...we may get through it EVENTUALLY but then again, we may not. I feel more comfortable knowing that someone is at least trying to help. If it doesn't work...it doesn't work, but whatever, at least he tried. One thing I didn't like about his speech was that he didn't tell us exactly what that money is going to be used for and how we're going to pay off that money. However, the fact that he mentioned using some of that money towards helping college students pay for education makes me happy. So...yeah...send out the money!
ReplyDeleteFeel free to respond to other people's posts...this is ecouraged
ReplyDeleteHowever, remember this is anonymous...if you have guesses to someone's identity you should keep this to yourself....
(In other words..we will attack ideas and arguments but not each other)
I would like to start by saying that I thought President Obama did an excellent job speaking at the press conference that we watched in class. I felt like he was sincerely thinking about what he was saying and he definitely knew what he was talking about and has a lot of background on economics, which gave me some comfort in his plans for an economic stimulus bill. I also agreed with Obama in how he stressed the idea that action needs to be taken now... America can't afford to sit around and wait any longer to see what happens with our economy. Obviously sitting around and waiting hasn't helped us in the past couple of months, and it won't help us in our future. In regards to the stimulus bill itself, I want to have hope that it will achieve what it was set out to do. The creation of about 4 million jobs will hopefully assist our unemployment rate, It's also helpful that these jobs are aimed towards discovering new energy sources and creating new technology that will further our nation, because these are also pressing issues that the government needs to deal with. Furthermore, I'm also all for helping college students pay for the increasing tuition prices, because college is obviously a part of my future and finding the money to pay for it is obviously an issue. I'm skeptical of how large of an amount the stimulus bill is, however, and I worry where the rest of the money will go, since Obama didn't exactly highlight the specifics. In the past, way too much of the money has gone to people who obviously don't deserve it, and I'm worried that will just happen again. I feel like D.C. is only getting more and more corrupt. Again, I feel like something definitely had to be done to help the economy, but I am unsure whether Obama's plan will work. Already, the White House is trying to cover themselves by saying that Americans shouldn't expect "instant miracles" so that makes me wonder whether they're already covering themselves if things were to go badly. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
ReplyDeleteWell, he may have done a bit of rambling, but for his first address, I am pretty impressed.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I am not surprised this passed. The republicans who were fault finding everything about this bill were hurting the country. Isn't the unemployment rate practically nearing 10%? You have to be crazy to not support this plan & at least make the effort for improvement.
The overall idea of this plan is to create new jobs & that's what we need to get the economy going again. I think things will truly turn around and many will get back to work.
However, my concern for this plan is inflation. Interest rates can't get much lower, and if the money supply is so greatly increased, that could lead to too much money and not enough goods and services.
All in all, I don't think there can be such thing as the perfect stimulus. Obama is just doing his job. Those who don't agree with him will complain. If he wasn't doing anything, those same people would still be complaining. The last thing our country needs right now is people ripping on the President. It's not like this bill is being passed and we will wake up tomorrow with awesome financial aid for college and an endless amount of available jobs. It’s going to take time.
And support.
Obama is doing alright so far. I dont know if I agree 100% with his stimulus plan because i think we should have tried something else first that would have been alot cheaper than this whole thing, but I guess we have to try something better then not doing anything at all that wouldnt help at all and it will just make it even worse. Obama was a great speaker, he was thinking before he said anything. he put alot of thought to what he was saying and I liked that alot. I am looking forward to see how this bill will help us and i cant wait to see what Obama will be doing for the next four years.
ReplyDeleteLets start by saying Obama did an excellent job with the press. About his plan, i dont know if it is really gonna work, but this is better than nothing, right. Anyway, i think the plan will work a-ok.
ReplyDeleteI think that Obama knows his stuff. If you went to little town Elkhorn Indiana, where the unemployment rate is off the charts, wouldn't you want to do something about it too? If you were there in person, and perhaps even saw your name next up on the lay-off list, wouldn't you be praying for a stimulus package like Obama's? Obama's idea, I think, is genious. Let's create new industries so schools can educate our children new things, so people will have to become professionals in these new fields and these fields will become just as vital as. . . perhaps even the health care industry. I remember Obama mentioned that he would work towards expanding and creating jobs in the energy industy, CHYEAH! Why the heck not? What a great deal! He's killing two birds with one stone here. The energy industry is in desperate need of finding alternative resources such as hydrogen power etc. So why not create a few more job openings in a time where income is sacredly valued and in an industry which is working to discover? Make the job hunters work harder for the job, AND for finding an alternative energy source.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't agree with this stimulus package 100%. I don't know if I have my numbers straight but I read somewhere that we are bailing out 9 million American's that are in danger of foreclosure from banks? Now I don't know if that is correct but I don't think that is right. Our government is sending the message that if you aren't smart with your money and don't finance properly the government will cover for your repitive mistakes. I believe the problem starts with the people borrowing money at rates they will not be able to pay back. Sure the banks may be at fault for making these irresponsible loans as well but its the consumers making these borrowing decisions.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, as far as the recession goes, it seems like we are almost in a panic mode with this new package. Recession IS going to happen, we aren't going to continually being in the expansion phase of the business cycle. The business cycle fluctuates even if it's over a long period of time. We aren't going to be in a recession forever contrary to what many want to believe.
As far as our new president Obama goes... I want to see results before I am impressed. Talk is cheap, results speak for themself.
Obama's a great speaker and you can tell that he thinks things through before he commits to his words. This characteristic is a good quality to have and shows that you aren't just willing to throw words out there to appease the public. The economic recession we are enduring is going to drag on for quite a while yet and will not make a full recovery anytime soon.. Only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteObama is a man of encouragement and hope, and I think you could tell during his speech. Is the stimulus plan perfect? No. But how can it be, we don't have enough time to find the perfect plan and get everything in perfect order, because by then it will be too late. I think the stimulus plan is at least something to give us a start. During the time we are using the money from the stimulus plan, we can think of a more full proof plan for the next couple of years. We will need a plan to get us back on track and I have no doubt in my mind he will do that. Obama is a strong speaker, he may not be the most exciting one but he lays out the facts of what he knows at the time. He also keeps us informed by showing up on the news often and giving us information so we are not left in the dark. I think that we need to give him a little more time before we can actually judge if hes doing good or bad, he hasn't even been the president for a month. Time will just have to tell. I hope he can get the rest of his cabinet up to par, because I don't have as much faith in them as I do in him.
ReplyDeleteI believe President Obama's speech was informative about the stimulas package but yet it failed at some main points. No one will ever agree 100% on the stimulas package but we all have to agree its one big step to help our economy out of a recession. I believe President Obama is doing a great job at President at the first 100 days in office I believe all of us would agree that we would of not of expected this right away into office and we sure agree Bush would of never done such a thing. I dont know if anybody saw President Obama's first speech that day in Indiana, but it was amazing. He didn't talk to the people he talked with the people. These were just ordinary Joes that were asking questions and President Obama would answer their questions in a way that all of us could understand. So my thought is do we have another Jimmy Carter who is a dwon to earth kind of guy or do we have another FDR and more Fireside Chats coming in the near future?
ReplyDeleteI love and respect President Obama and I believe he will do a great job. For me being in the US Navy I am proud to stand behind him.
ReplyDeleteIts not fair to Obama that Bush left this country like it is now...but i know Obama will try..to fix us. It will take some time.
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