CommentaryMagazine: Stimulus: A History of Folly

Stimulus--that is, fiscal intervention with the express purpose of speeding up the normal regenerative process that Grant describes--is unnecessary and almost certainly harmful, a policy based on hubris and anxiety, rather than on history and good sense. Under such circumstances, the proper way to analyze discrete proposals today for spending or taxing is on their own merits, not on their supposed ability to stimulate something else. There may, in fact, be a good reason for government to spend billions of dollars today on building highways, and it has nothing to do with stimulus. It is that long-term interest rates are at historic lows and that the right highways can boost the economy in the long term. There also may be a good reason, again far apart from stimulus, for revising the tax code and reforming Social Security and Medicare. It is that Americans now understand that the economic future is not so assured as they believed a couple of years ago, and it is time for decisions to be made--in a manner careful, sensible, and unstimulated."

Holy shit, you mean I am not going to be able to afford a 4,000 sq ft. house, a german luxury sedan, have three kids, and still have extra cash to spend on all the consumable goods I can stuff in my lifestyle to make me feel important, and still have a retirement? Quick... somebody, spend something!