Stimulus must build stronger nation, Obama says – MarketWatch
“I have confidence that not only are we going to be able to create jobs, but we’re also going to be making a down payment on some critical areas that, as the economy recovers and the private sector starts investing again, we’re going to see some long-term benefits and long- term savings,” Obama said at a press conference in Washington.
Obviously I don’t have the full text of the speech, and I am acknowledging that any news source is just one source, written a specific way. But…on the one hand, I’m really glad to see intelligent, long-term thinking applied to this topic. We must plan ahead. We must lay down the groundwork for the future so that we will avoid this. We must rethink what we are doing now. Yes, we need to think this way. I completely agree.
On the other, it’s kind of sad that a speech has to be made saying that a $775 billion plan needs to be more than a quick fix. I know this is a big problem and any dollar amount should be more than a quick fix. But as was mentioned in both my marketing and econ classes last night, a big part of stimulus is getting cash in the hands of people. Cash in the hand is easy to understand. Cutting interest rates as a way of reducing the cost of capital and therefore improving the liquidity status (essentially) or ability of individuals is a bit harder to understand…which means that talk about long-term needs to be done very delicately. So far, the quoted items make it sound like Obama did a good job.
Anyway. Random thought.