"We found that in the third quarter the Recovery Act added 3-4 points to real GDP and from 1.5-3 in the fourth quarter," said Christina Romer, who chairs the CEA. "Without the Recovery Act, we would have been negative in Q4."
The CEA released its second quarterly report on the economic impact of the Recovery Act early Wednesday.
(Read the report here).
On a conference call late Tuesday night, Romer was clear that the $787 billion stimulus package has been instrumental in turning around the economy – even if the actual numbers remain unclear.
"None of us have a crystal ball," she said of the economic analysis done by the CEA, which consists of three members nominated by the President and approved by the U.S. Senate. "I stand very much behind these numbers. Of course there’s uncertainty, that’s why there’s a range of estimates. By the end of next year, we will have saved or created 3.5 million jobs."
Brian Shactman
CNBC Reporter
Ironically, on the topic of jobs, during the conference call with reporters, Romer was asked about the Recovery Board’s shift away from calculating jobs "created or saved".
"Close to 2 million jobs have been created or saved through the Recovery Act," she said, adding that the 640,000 number given on recovery.gov was more of a guide. "We looked at those numbers and looked at them as a check."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34836950
The recovery act has helped the economy not fall into greater depression and a greater unemployment toll. Even though they save previous jobs, should the government push to creating jobs in the economy like we did the first great depression as we built highways across america? Should we push for creating jobs in technology or manual labor projects?
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I feel that if the government does work to creat jobs, such as the CCC during the Great Depression, the jobs should be focused on partds of our country that will positively affect us in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThis could be, like we were talking about in class, bettering our infrastructure like the CCC did: highways, buildings, etc. Technology would also help.
I think that there are enough people who are willing, able, and wanting to do jobs like this that it would be beneficial to our economy and our nation in the long run.
A
I feel both would be good for the country. In the case of Michigan, the state government should be heavily investing in technology and alternative energy sources because it has been repeatedly shown that we can not solely rely on the auto industry. Also, Michigan needs a big boost in infrastructure repair so both would be good.
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