Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Stimulus package envy

Since the U.S. government is mired in debt, our ability to borrow more money to finance a stimulus package is severely limited. U.S. economists are talking about spending maybe 1-3% of GDP to help cushion the blow of the recession.

Compare that with China, which just announced a stimulus package of somewhere around 15% of GDP. China will spend it on "low-income housing, rural infrastructure, water, electricity, transportation, the environment, technological innovation and rebuilding from several disasters." It has been described as China's New Deal, directed toward the rural and urban poor who have not benefitted from globalization.

Ah, it would be nice to have a huge current account surplus and lots of dollar reserves, wouldn't it?

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