The Experts speak on the Stimulus

Progressives love to point to "academic experts" who support one or another of their programs. Supposedly, the support of these experts is more important than the views of the voters. After all, according to progressives, the "experts" know better than the common people. Well, now there is a rigorous examination of the Obama stimulus law and all of the palaver about jobs saved and created. Two professors of economics, Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor, have applied their analysis to the issue. Their paper can be reached by clicking on the title to this post. The key, however,is their conclusion:

" We estimate the Act created/saved 450 thousand government-sector jobs and destroyed/forestalled one million private sector jobs. State and local government jobs were saved because ARRA funds were largely used to o ffset state revenue shortfalls and Medicaid increases (Fig. A) rather than boost private sector employment (e.g. Fig. B). The majority of destroyed/forestalled jobs were in growth industries including health, education, professional and business services. Searching across alternative model speci cations, the best-case scenario for an eff ectual ARRA has the Act creating/saving a net 659 thousand jobs, mainly in government."

So there you have it. We spent 800 billion dollars to destroy or delay a total of 550,000 jobs and to shift employment from the private sector to the public sector. Even viewing things in the best light possible, we spent an average of $120,000 per job to save or create 659,000. In short, the economic analysis reveals a total destruction of the myth that the Stimulus law provided any effective help for the country to emerge from the recession. All it did was slap another trillion dollars into the national debt while destroying jobs in the private sector.

It is doubtful that we will see many feature articles in the New York Times or the Washington Post that explain this rigorous academic analysis. It would just not do for the paragons of the liberal press to point out the when it came to economics, Obama, like the emperor in the old tale, had no clothes.