While many right-wing economists have been arguing against the stimulus, many on the left believe that it will "probably" work. Brad DeLong, a political economist at the University of California--Berkeley, presents why he thinks the stimulus will improve our economic situation.
The general principle he cites is that "each major business cycle expansion we have seen has been driven by a leading wave of spending—by some group that becomes enthusiastic about their prospects and decides to greatly up its spending. And that pulls employment and production up."
However, one still has to approach this situation looking at the potential benefits and the potential costs. Whether we will be better or worse off in the future than we are now is not the issue. What matters is whether we will be better off than we otherwise would in the future.
DeLong is aware of that concern, asking "Will there be some sort of a hangover after this Obama spending binge—and if there is a hangover how bad will it be?" And with that, he leaves the reader hanging. Hopefully, this stimulus won't leave the US economy in a similar situation.
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