A new study from the San Francisco Fed uses the variation in state-level stimulus funding to determine what impact ARRA funding had on employment — including both the direct impact of workers hired to complete planned projects, as well as any broader spillover effects resulting from greater government spending. Administration economists have repeatedly emphasized the importance of this indirect employment growth in driving economic recovery.
The results suggest that though Presbo’s $787 billion “stimulus” spending did result in 2 million jobs “created or saved” by March 2010, net job creation was statistically indistinguishable from zero by August of this year. Taken at face value, this would suggest that the stimulus program (with an overall cost of $814 billion) worked only to generate temporary jobs at a cost of over $400,000 per worker.

Nice work, if you can get it.

For the most part, this article follows the above theme — I forgive Randall Holcombe for inserting a few of his opinions in between the solid analysis. Keep this up, FEE!

Personal note: I learned so much in Dr. Holcombe’s public choice econ class at FSU; I relished talking with him when I was his student. I now teach econ and discuss some of the very same material above in my classes — the “unseen” cause&effect portions on profit/loss mechanism and incentives. FEE can be a rich source of applications of course material, if one has the patience to sift through the sea of opinions, unbacked claims, and opinions-passed-off-as-fact to find solid cause-effect analysis. I have that patience on most days

A fractional reserve bank is always in the red to the economy. It is the nature of not having real assets as the product of the bank. Instead, it issues unbacked notes into the economy and through this one act generates a debt that the bank has relative to the economy it traded those notes with. No amount of fiscal yoga will make that debt disappear. Only obfuscation in the legal code and secret books immune from public audit.

Take the fight to them yourselves. Google: “Code Redemption 411″

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=37276