About That Stimulus Money

National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee has declared that the "great recession" not only has ended, but ended in June of last year.  While it certainly doesn't feel like the recession is over since our national unemployment hovers just below 10%, home foreclosures are still occurring at alarming rates, people home's are still underwater, and people in general are still hurting and are scared.

But, in economic terms the recession is over.  The question becomes why did we spend all of that stimulus money?  I am not hearing anything in the press about this, but logically it couldn't have been the stimulus money that brought the economy out of the recession. The money (some of which has yet to be spent) couldn't have gotten into the economy to make a difference to affect the numbers that ended in the second quarter of last year. The stimulus passed in towards the middle of the first quarter of 2009, and by the end of the second quarter the recession ended.  For a recession to be over it has to be two straight quarters of growth.  Which means that we had growth in the first quarter of 2009. 

This is yet more bad news for the president.  The stimulus did little or nothing to get the economy out of the recession in technical terms.  The evidence seems to show that economy would be in the same shape that it is today without the stimulus.  It is shame that media is not picking up this. 

So why exactly did we spend almost $1 billion of borrowed money again?