Something I found floating around on the internet, sums it up nicely:
Sometime this year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers..
Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. No, they are borrowing it from China. Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China?
A. Shut up.
As for the purpose of the Future Fund, well that's arbitrary - it's for whatever the government of the day decides to use the money for.
US Reserve committee tips up to six years of downturn
Glenn Dyer writes:
According to members of the US Federal Reserve, the American economy faces four to six years of sluggish growth ... a period of downturn longer than has been forecast by any other economic policy setting group around the world.
The minutes of the latest meeting of the Fed's key policy group, the Open Markets Committee (which sets interest rates), show that at best the US economy can expect four years of below-trend growth, high unemployment and no real worries about inflation.
The Fed indicated it expects gross domestic product to decline by 0.5% to 1.3% this year, significantly worse than the October forecast of -0.2% to positive 1.1% growth. Unemployment is forecast to rise from 8.5% to 8.8%. GDP fell by 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008, and unemployment hit 7.6% last month, a 17-year high.
According to the minutes, some members of the Open Markets Committee don't see any relief on unemployment until well into 2011.
In the outlook section of the forecast, the minutes read:
Looking further ahead, participants’ growth projections had a central tendency of 2.5 to 3.3 percent for 2010 and 3.8 to 5.0 percent for 2011. Participants generally expected that strains in financial markets would ebb only slowly and hence that the pace of recovery in 2010 would be damped. Nonetheless, participants generally anticipated that real GDP growth would gain further momentum in 2011.
FOMC participants viewed the outlook for economic activity and inflation as having weakened significantly since last October, when their last projections were made.
Participants projected that real GDP would contract this year, that the unemployment rate would increase substantially, and that consumer price inflation would be significantly lower than in recent years.
Given the strength of the forces currently weighing on the economy, participants generally expected that the recovery would be unusually gradual and prolonged:
All participants anticipated that unemployment would remain substantially above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011, even absent further economic shocks; a few indicated that more than five to six years would be needed for the economy to converge to a longer-run path characterized by sustainable rates of output growth and and unemployment and by an appropriate rate of inflation (my bolding).
Participants generally judged that their projections for both economic activity and inflation were subject to a degree of uncertainty exceeding historical norms. Nearly all participants viewed the risks to the growth outlook as skewed to the downside.
It's not Fed policy and there was certainly no sign of a mention of this in a separate public speech by chairman Ben Bernanke today. But it does indicate how gloomy some of the major policy setters in America's most important financial institution have become.
And it's an important point because without a strongly rebounding American economy, we won't get a bounce elsewhere. If America's rebound is slow and tepid, then we face a much slower recovery here and around the world.
No-one in Australia, from the Government to the Reserve bank, is thinking along these lines, but if the Americans are right to any degree, the recovery here expected towards the end of 2009 and into 2010 will fade away.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25081628-5005961,00.htmlTHE Federal Government has rejected research which shows its $42 billion economic stimulus package will not save jobs unless Australia's immigration intake is slashed.
In a paper to be released today, demographic experts warn that new permanent and temporary migrant workers will soak up the 90,000 jobs the package is supposed to support.
That is because the immigration intake will exceed the number of jobs the Commonwealth was trying to protect, The Australian Financial Review reports.
The experts advocate cutting the skilled intake to between 40,000 and 50,000 visas - down from a projected 133,500 - and forcing employers who want to import staff to prove that local skills are not available.
"It seems to me that this research could not be right,'' federal Employment Minister Julia Gillard told ABC Television.
"We are expediting the immigration of people who have the skills that we need.''
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25081628-5005961,00.html
Ahh. Of course. Ms Gohard is more of an expert in these matters than the "experts".
"Saving face" seems to be just as powerful an instinct for Oz pollies as for their honorable Japanese counterparts.
NewsCom Headline
Reserve Bank minutes suggest Government stimulus will work
Well they would...wouldn't they?
Unfortunately, history shows that it NEVER worked. The Japanese have acted far faster and in greater "numbers" when their economy tanked due to excessive debt and speculation. What happened? Still in a technical depression.
in the asian crisis of 1989/1990 Japan waited too long before a stimulus package was in...not done until 1995...it was too late...by 5-6 years....then they built concrete paths everywhere.as their share in infrastructure..and to provide jobs...they had a job for life program..so even if the employer was going broke he could not sack them...there is a very old population and no immigration...
its all out there for everyone to see..just google it...
so since Japan had all these problems for almost 2 decades...they are just doing now ..what they should have done almost 20 years ago...
but until Japan changes its attitude...its stuck in a rut...very bad management on all levels...
all the young ones have to look forward to ,,,is looking after all the olds...what a basket case
in the asian crisis of 1989/1990 Japan waited too long before a stimulus package was in...not done until 1995...it was too late...by 5-6 years....then they built concrete paths everywhere.as their share in infrastructure..and to provide jobs...they had a job for life program..so even if the employer was going broke he could not sack them...there is a very old population and no immigration...
its all out there for everyone to see..just google it...
so since Japan had all these problems for almost 2 decades...they are just doing now ..what they should have done almost 20 years ago...
but until Japan changes its attitude...its stuck in a rut...very bad management on all levels...
all the young ones have to look forward to ,,,is looking after all the olds...what a basket case
when are we likely to receive the second stimulus, April?
jsut wondering as i have festival tickets to buy in upcoming weeks
when are we likely to receive the second stimulus, April?
jsut wondering as i have festival tickets to buy in upcoming weeks
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