Did the Economic Stimulus checks Help?

No... most people didn't use it to spend on whatever they wanted, they used it to pay for bills that are piling up and for gas to get to work. Very sad... Also, they failed to provide it to everyone in america, including college students who are claimed as a dependant whether or not their parents actually HELP them with paying bills or not... If they had done this, my opinion is it may have helped a little more since college students tend to have a more disposable view of money.

Kevin,

OBVIOUSLY the bills had to be paid anyway, but in my experience, most people I know put it toward mounting credit card bills and what not. It is not a silly notion if you really think about it.

Yes is helped a little but I doubt it helped as much as it was projected to, and did it pull us out of the situation we were in? NO. The question this person is asking is, did it improve the economy any RECOGNIZABLE WAY? To answer that I ask another question...Does anyone feel less of a strain on their wallets? I highly doubt it.

Yes, there's no real doubt that the checks helped -- they boosted consumer spending, which is the largest component of GDP. Without the stimulus checks, GDP growth would have been lower to some degree that it was during the second quarter.

The silly notion that the checks didn't help because people had to spend it on gas and bills ignores the obvious fact that those bills would have had to be paid anyway, and a bonus $600 or $1200 made more money available to use for that and the rest of the budget.

Recall that GDP growth in the 2nd quarter was MUCH higher than expected ... it was 2.8% growth when many people were expecting negative growth and recession. It's simply a mathematical certainty that this was largely owing to the stimulus money. People who claim otherwise are not doing any serious analysis.

Of course that doesn't prevent the current problem -- turns out it was not well understood at all until 2 weeks ago anyway. There was nothing the checks COULD have done about the fundamental mortgage credit problems that led to the current mess.

quite frankly i don't think they did mine went right into savings because in this econmy to me everyone was scared to just go out and spend like crazy because with every thing going up and up gas, food, clothes it is scary not to have any money in savings to have for that rainy day

I'm going to say no considering the bailout.