John Merline on the announcement that the recession ended June 2009:
President Barack Obama has often claimed that the $800-plus billion stimulus package helped prevent the recession from becoming another Great Depression.
The trouble is that we now know the recession ended just as the stimulus money started to get spent. According to the White House’s own 100-day stimulus report, issued at the end of May 2009, only $45.6 billion in spending and tax relief had gone out the door by then. In other words, less than 6 percent of the stimulus money was in the economy as the recession ended, making its role in stopping the downward spiral somewhat murky.
He goes on to point out that obviously it doesn’t feel like the recession’s over. That leaves Obama with little to crow about.
