Unemployment & the Stimulus

Ezra Klein posted this graph of the job losses. The pre-stimulus job losses cover the time of 2007 to July 2009. The stimulus period covers after President Obama's stimulus policy took effect. Economist Robert Shapiro crunched unemployment numbers of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The stimulus worked to avoid an economic depression and the Republicans have been able to put Democrats on the defensive of a successful policy. Obama has not properly articulated why the stimulus was needed. Obama and Lawrence Summers did not have the political courage to back the stimulus proposal advocated by Christine Romer. Paul Krugman made the point on how the Obama administration was more concerned with politics than good policy. It turns out to be bad politics to not defend the stimulus.