Some Feel We Are Not Being Aggressive Enough

TW: The stimulus debate has been framed by the media as a choice between Obama's plan and smaller plans advocated by Republicans. There are reputable economists and observers who believe the debate should be between the Obama plan and larger plans due to the severity of the crises.

From Paul Krugman at NYT:
"One major sin of news coverage, especially on TV, is the way certain points of view just get excluded from consideration — even if many of the best-informed people hold those views. Most famously and disastrously, the case against invading Iraq was just not heard in the months before the war.


And still it happens...the idea that the Obama stimulus plan might be too small — a view held by many well-known economists — basically went unreported on broadcast news during the stimulus debate. Out of 59 broadcasts addressing the plan, only 3 mentioned concerns that the plan was inadequate"

From David Rosenburg at Merrill Lynch:
"War must be declared against this modern-day depression
We do not aim to be critical, and we do not claim to be public policy experts by any stretch, but the reality is that the economy is in dire need of a major positive exogenous shock. Whether that means the Fed starting to buy Treasuries to pull down market rates even lower, the public sector establishing land banks to establish a floor under residential real estate prices, or the White House instructing Congress to dole out a $1 trillion zero percent long-term loan to the beleaguered state and local governments who are being forced to cut back services and raise taxes at the worst possible time, or all of the above, we will leave open for debate. What is not open for debate is the state of the economy,and we can no longer just label this a recession after the latest string of shockingly negative employment reports. The government has to declare war right now … against this modern-day depression."

TW: Rosenburg elsewhere in the report outlined how the employment figures are far worse than the headline numbers which were bad enough yet sufficiently not bad to spur some market optimism. As you can see he is VERY concerned.

He is calling for not less but more action!! I would add republican economist Martin Feldstein has come out suggesting a second stimulus will likely be necessary as well.