I Feel Stimulated. Don’t You?
Oh how far I have fallen from my self-imposed responsibility to keep up with the workings of the economy in the US. Today I was eating dinner at a friend’s house and he mentioned that, as a country, we are now officially “stimulated.” I had no idea what he was talking about.
I suppose that, on some level, I was aware that Congress was involved in some kind of “stimulus package” for the economy, but to be honest, I actually thought that the bills had already been passed and that the money was already wasted on worthless crap. I guess I tuned out of that debate sometime around the time when John McCain decided he wanted to cancel a debate so he could get back to the Senate and help save the nation from impending doom. Apparently, I tuned out prematurely. No harm done, though, right?
Let me be the first to say that I, for one, feel grateful to be so “stimulated.” I’m glad that the country’s economic problems are all over now because that was a scary month or two. Apparently some people were actually threatened with job losses. (Crazy! I know!) Fortunately those were just rumors and have been “stimulated” away. The fundamentals of our economy are strong. Seriously, we’re so blessed to live in a country with a government that can just step in and “stimulate” us away from impending doom with a trillion dollars.
Maybe I need to start following the economy again.
And if you think I was being serious in that last paragraph, then I need to “stimulate” my sarcasm a bit more, because it didn’t come through.
What is “worthless crap”? I’m not looking for an example or two; I’m looking for a definition. Thanks.
Finally, the economics post I was looking for… with more sarcasm and less substance.
Really though, I would love to be stimulated by your brilliant economic mind when you have the time, even if you do hate macro.
Tom–
I would say that almost anything resulting from a conversation which begins with some variation on “Look, guys, we’ve got to create demand. Where should we spend money?”
More ambiguously (if possible),I would say that anything for which private demand does not exist, and which could not meet the economic definition of a public good,could be called “worthless crap.”
Preston–
The post was partially serious–I actually have not paid a lick of attention to the macro economy for months. I intend to repent and be better, but it won’t happen over night, since I’m kind of behind on things.
Scott, I would appreciate it if you went through your post and put quotation marks around every instance of stimulate or stimulus. Since the recently passed bill is more of a spending ram-through than an actual stimulus package, “stimulus bill/package” needs to be qualified.
Thanks from your local angry economist.
I suppose I could do that. Sure. Why not?
And actually, re-reading my post reminded me of the fact that I had forgotten to link the “fundamentals of our economy” thing to video of McCain making an arse of himself.