09.02.09
Working as designed
Chief economist at Goldman Sachs: Stimulus turned zero growth to 3.3%.
Not that we trust anyone on Wall Street, but still, this is rather huge:
For the third quarter, economists at Goldman Sachs & Co. predict the U.S. economy will grow by 3.3%. “Without that extra stimulus, we would be somewhere around zero,” said Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist for Goldman.
The big test, as the article notes, is what happens after the stimulus money is spent, and no longer providing a boost to the economy. Still, this is good news, and good ammunition for the administration to use to show why the stimulus mattered. Too bad the Republicans didn’t vote for it.
Now the Democrats should pass real health care reform and as Howard Dean said, “So let’s get our bill on, let’s do what Franklin Roosevelt did, let’s pass the program, people are going to be very happy with it, and this will be forgotten, and we’ll pick up seats in the Fall of 2010 just like Franklin Roosevelt did.”.