There are signs that the economy might be recovering. This optimism may turn out to be unfounded. Or it may turn out to be justified. But the reason I mention that only $36 billion of the stimulus has been spent in the first 3+ months since the stimulus bill passed is to remind people that we were told that we needed to spend $787 billion urgently without discussion or thought to save the economy and that the reason it would work was because It—and "it" is the spending of this enormous sum of money—would create jobs. It would create jobs by stimulating aggregate demand in the face of a slump in consumer spending. If indeed the economy does recover—the so-called V shaped recovery, then it cannot be via this increase in aggregate demand caused by government spending.
UPDATE: The total spending as of May 22 has been adjusted upward from $35.9 billion to $36.7 billion. So please adjust the number in the above paragraph to $37 billion…
