Not on nearly the level waste Obama's plan had. China's government is alot smarter than ours, and id be willing to bet a much larger portion of their stimulus went towards viable businesses, not towards bailing out union cronies who have bankrupted their businesses. I would imagine if the Chinese government caught some of their politicians wasting money on the shit that our stimulus went to, they would have dragged them out into the street and shot them.
Uhh huh, it's such an open society, so uncorrupt. At any rate, if you're right, then we have our proof that stimulus spending works.
I never said it did absolutely nothing. It obviously creates some jobs, but it creates them in the most inefficient way possible, which is through the government. The reason why Keynesian economics has been a colossal failure is because politicians only look out for themselves. There is no saving money, cutting government, or increasing taxes when times are good, but politicians sure do manage to use keynesian economics as an excuse to spend like a drunken sailor when times are bad. Basically the only way Keynesian economics could ever work is if you had a dictator who wasnt worried about ever being re-elected. The fact of the matter is that no one wants to make the unpopular choice of cutting spending and increasing taxes during booms which is what is required to make keynesian economics work. All we ever see is one side of Keynes, the spending side.
If these keynesian arseholes were not trying their hardest to keep inflating asset prices, and they actually let asset prices deflate to a level which better reflected reality, banks would start lending, and people would start buying, thus creating demand. If you really want to use stimulus to "stimulate" an economy, why not let the economy get to a point where the dollars you are using are far more valuable? Right now we are seeing the bitter end of keynesian economics, there is no more stimulus money, none of these countries have anymore money.
I'll be amazed the day that Ricter actually engages in a conversation and makes meaningful counter-points to this sound logic. What more need be said about the past 2+ years of reckless spending, bailouts and umpteenth attempts at inflating assets as a "cure" for a depressed real economy.