Economy

Second Stimulus

Laura Tyson is a member of the Obama administration's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and she wrote an op/ed for the New York Times titled "Why We Need a Second Stimulus."

Two forms of spending with the biggest and quickest bang for the buck are unemployment benefits and aid to state governments. The federal government should pledge generous financing increases for both programs through 2011.

Let's get going. Tyson is referencing the following multipliers (or similar numbers):

stimulus_vs_taxcuts.jpg

Naturally, they have to stick it hard to the deficit-reduction fetishists. But the polls are on the side of a second stimulus (by large margins) and the economic climate makes another stimulus mandatory.

I'm just glad someone in the White House is talking publicly about more spending.