The power of stimulus

On the morning that the British Government welcomed the fall in ILO unemployment and youth unemployment, Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe has emailed the President’s list of 13 million supporters with an email declaring “We’re on the road to recovery.”

The chart, reproduced below, shows how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped slow increases in unemployment.

David Plouffe's chart shows how the US stimulus is working

Although the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance has increased, figures out today in the UK confirm that the recession has had a milder impact on jobless numbers. The Office for National Statistics writes today:

“When compared with previous recessions, the unemployment rate in the 2008-09 recession has remained lower.”

The UK stimulus was considerably smaller than the US stimulus so continued support is needed to secure the recovery. Left Foot Forward will have more analysis on the jobless numbers later today.

http://twitter.com/bencooper86/status/9228356217 Ben Cooper

RT @leftfootfwd: The power of stimulus: As new UK jobless figures published, Obama's campaign manager shows why Keynesianism works http://bit.ly/9g5pID
http://twitter.com/dominiccampbell/status/9228912587 Dominic Campbell

The power of stimulus (or just the cyclical nature of Capitalism?) http://bit.ly/9g5pID (via @leftfootfwd)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_blofeld Billy Blofeld

Thus it is a shame that instead of Obama we had Gordon Brown running things over here.

Firstly Gordon had already pissed all our money up the wall – so that when compared relatively, in this country we could only afford a tiny stimulus.

Secondly, he put what little resources he had into VAT as a stimulus. What a total prat.
http://www.timworstall.com Tim Worstall

Snigger. The official recession lasted from Dec 2007 to Dec 2009. So the idea that job losses slow down towards the end of a recession might have something to do with that really.
http://www.leftfootforward.org/ Will Straw

Billy – I dont normally agree with you but I agree that VAT was the wrong way to spend £12bn. But it has still had a stimulative impact and the £5bn spent on labour market guarantees have been critical.

Tim – Don’t you think the stimulus had something to do with the US coming out of recession too?
http://scottlaplant.net/2010/02/the-power-of-stimulus/ The power of stimulus « Scott LaPlant

[...] The power of stimulus from Left Foot Forward [...]
http://www.timworstall.com Tim Worstall

“Don’t you think the stimulus had something to do with the US coming out of recession too?”

Not a lot, no. Given that only one third of it has been spent now if I recall correctly.

Monetary policy, now that’s a different thing. But the stimulus bill? No, not in my opinion.