We May Need a Bigger Stimulus, Say Analysts

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 7, 2009 12:35 PM CST
We May Need a Bigger Stimulus, Say Analysts
Graphic charts monthly unemployment rate from September 1983 to the present.   (AP Photo)

The lousy unemployment numbers released this week—and they're bound to get worse before they get better—cast the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s fiscal plans into doubt, analysts say. The stimulus package intended to “save or create” 3.5 million jobs now has to keep up with 4.4 million jobs lost since the recession began. “I hate to break it to you,” one economist tells the Washington Post. “It’s not going to be enough.”

“Neither the government nor many economists have a grasp yet of how bad the economy really is right now,” another economist said. In addition to trouble for the average Joe, unemployment adversely affects measures intended to help the nation’s banks, key to recovery. But it’s not all bad—sort of. “For the first time in a while, at least,” yet another economist ventured, “it's possible to at least see how things could turn out better.” (More President Obama stories.)

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