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Originally Posted by Schneed10

Agreed.

There could have been more oversight on the mortgage mess, there could have been more oversight on corporate greed, and stuff like that. But it never would have prevented the recession. In fact, if there were tough oversight of mortgage lending, there never would have been the strong GDP growth we saw prior to the recession.

With oversight, we would have experienced slower growth and a softer recession. Without it, we experienced faster growth and a harder recession. In the end, roughly the same number of people would have been out of work for roughly the same amount of time.

Now with a stimulus, we can dig ourselves out sooner but the economy won't bounce back as high. Without a stimulus, it will take longer to dig out, but growth will bounce back higher when we do eventually pull out.

Policy can affect the severity of ebbs and flows, but it can't change the unemployment x time quotient, and it can't change the GDP growth over time.

Most of the bills spending on roads and such that may add jobs will not hit for over a year. The main things that will hit this year is tax cuts and aid to the states which I don't think are enough to do very much good. So if the economy is starting to grow in a year are they still going to spend another 400 to 500 billion? I'm sure they will.Much in Obama stimulus bill won't hit economy soon - BusinessWeek