2008 Economic Stimulus Analysis

From my personal recollection of the 2008 Economic Stimulus Package, which was issued in the late third quarter to early fourth quarter of the year, there were two primary reasons that it was not hugely successful. I remember all the buzz about what President Bush was going to do and people were anxiously waiting to see. Because the checks came so late in the year, the possible impact that the spending of this disposable income would have made was already limited. The second reason, I think, for the lack of marginal success of the economic stimulus, is that when the economy is not steady, people are more cautious about spending.

I believe that the $168 billion used for the economic stimulus could have gone further and stimulated aggregate