Any ECON-101er can explain the efficiency of a business closing in redistributing the workforce and, in turn, redistributing wealth in a very capitalistic manner. The volume of a commodity is relatively constant at a given price, the workforce required for that commodity at that price/volume will respond in kind. For example, AIG disappearing would not change the volume of the commodity, but would redistribute the workforce involved with the commodity accordingly. Some AIG people will rehire at the hiring entity and some at the hiring entity will lose their jobs and many will suffer from changes in their income while others will benefit. Bailing out floundering business in the spirit of saving jobs is a true waste of money and a perfect model to provoke acceptance of socialism. The floundering business can now only pay substandard wages resulting in increasing numbers of lower working class individuals that cannot afford the commodity causing the GNP to shrink. Recursive destruction.

1) Regression analysis can be a powerful tool, but it can be awfully prone to abuse. You can fit a line through just about any data.

2) Most economic analysis is of the “comparative static” variety. I.e., run the analysis with assumption A, then substitute assumption B, and see what the difference is. Dynamic models take into account how the change from A to B would alter the model itself. Dynamic analyses are much harder to do, and depend on a lot of assumptions which make them ripe for criticism.

3) Any analysis is only as good as the data that’s being analyzed. If people are lying about where the stimulus funds are going, then the analysis is going to be worthless.

Fewer people drawing a paycheck, more people unemployed, more people giving up, and more people no longer eligible for unemployment compensation.

Everything bad that happens is Bush’s fault– even the things that didn’t spring up until well after he left office or that are a direct result of the current administration’s policies.

Sounds like typical liberalogic to me.