Stimulus is now law...any wagers on the actual affect it will have on the economy?

I know our nation has borrowed a lot from other nations, especially China. I heard on the news today that China itself is wanting to borrow money. Well, it could create a crisis, the way I see it, if all the people we have borrowed from all of a sudden want it paid back. Our lawmakers seem to be rather stupid and short sighted to put our nation into such jeopardy. "Live for today, and to he__ with tomorrow" seems to be their attitude.

It is not as simple as creditors just wanting to 'cash in'.

I'm not completely sure about America, but in many countries most of the government debt is in bonds, which are paid back after a pre-determined length of time. If the government wants more loans at that point they issue more bonds. America is very far from not being able to sell bonds. This is how countries normally do it.

Alternatively if the debt is multilateral or bilateral, this type of debt is more often re-scheduled than paid back anyway. No other country can simply say "I want it back" because America can just say "no, we'll pay it later or not at all". And America does hold credit with a lot of countries in this way also.

There is a strong view among economists that trying to reduce a deficit in an economic downswing will increase the problem. This is because deficits stimulate the economy, and surpluses contract the economy. Why would you want to contract the economy when it is bad already? Rather, contracting the economy is an upswing may be beneficial, because it smooths out the economic cycle and reduces the probable magnitude of the next downswing. The logical solution is to pay back the debt in an upswing. Everyone who has an education in economics knows this argument.

So the problem is completely Bush's fault. The upswing happened while he was massively increasing debt levels. And now America is in a downswing there is not much than can be done about it until the economy recovers.

So the focus should be on economic recovery, not on debt levels. They can be worried about later. And the sooner the economy recovers, the sooner they can be sorted out. This is why most economists are not concerned about the increased debt due to the stimulus, because it is actually helping the debt problem rather than making it worse.

What I don't understand is why the economic downswing is making people more worried about debt? It is not a new problem, and it is hypocritical to worry about it now without having worried about it before the financial crisis. Now that debt is needed people are making a big deal about it. What about the presidency when it wasn't needed and most of it was racked up?

I wager in 2-4 years the dollar will fold and be worth nothing. If you think things are bad now, just wait and see what Barry has in store for us. You are going to be wishing for the good old days of President Bush.

Im not sure if it will help either. I say either because your view is quite clear. We just have to hope that the economy will oget back in gear. While I don't think that this stimulus will help, I don't think that tax cuts are the answer either.

There are two sides to every story. Here we have the official presidential side from which the Obama Administration and the Democrat Congress says this will greatly help the economy. On the other side we have common sense. It says it won't help. ...and common sense is where I place my bet.

I think this "Congressional Relief Action Program" will cause high inflation. I think our economy would have survived and would have bounced back without all the spending on special interest projects.

What a bunch of C.R.A.P.!

Going in debt is never the solution to getting out of debt. According to the Word of God, "Give and it shall be given unto you..."