Friday, September 09, 2011

Understanding large numbers

I was shaking my head at this post on the liberal Balloon Juice citing a report by Moody Analytics estimating that Obama's brand-new $448 billion stimulus would "likely add 1.9 million jobs" to the economy.  Good news!
Now again, this is a ratings agency, so you might as well be polling random crackheads and asking them who will win the Super Bowl in 2027. But still, it at least it sounds positive and can be used to bludgeon Congress into doing something
Yes, Mr. Congressman, pass President Obama's Stimulus II at a cost of only $235,000 per job.  (Coincidentally, this is almost exactly the cost of every job "created or saved" with Stimulus I.)  At some point, you have to wonder if it wouldn't be better for the economy to just send $1000 to every man, woman, and child in America - which would still be cheaper than Obama's plan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funny how the opinions of ratings agency crackheads mattered plenty a month ago.

Mitt Romney:
"Standard & Poor’s rating downgrade is a deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under President Obama. His failed policies have led to high unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, and now, the unprecedented loss of our nation’s prized AAA credit rating.”

Eric Cantor:
"We had to drag him [President Obama] to the table to make even the modest spending cuts that Standard & Poor’s says don’t go far enough."

RNC:
"The Obama Downgrade... Another Bleak Record In The Failure Of The Obama Presidency."

Michele Bachmann:
“We were warned by all of the credit agencies that a failure to deal with our debt would lead to a downgrade in our credit rating, but instead he [President Obama] submitted a budget that had a $1.5 trillion deficit and then requested a $2.4 trillion blank check."