This is from James Pethokoukis, Reuters.com.

"The Obama Administration is touting that their stimulus program has saved or created 640,329 jobs since it was enacted back in February through the end of October. This number is updated and posted on the Administration’s recovery.gov web site. That amounts to $246,436 per job based on the $157.8bn that has been awarded so far! Total compensation earned by the average payroll employee during October, on an annualized basis, was $59,867. If the government had simply used the funds awarded so far to pay for a year’s worth of labor, that would have paid for 2.6mn jobs!"

Gee it only cost us 5x the amount each job is worth for the government to "create or save" jobs. I guess for the government that is pretty good. I still think it is sad when the media reports it was a good month when a slightly smaller percentage of people lost their jobs than in the previous month.

 

From Bill Bonner at the dailyreckoning

"And the White House came right out and with a straight face said it had
saved 2 million jobs. How do you like that? More than 7 million jobs
have disappeared in the correction so far. But the total would have
been more than 9 million, had it not been for the feds.

Let's see, $700 billion worth of stimulus spending...hey, that's
$350,000 per job. But every dollar of deficit is actually 'stimulus
spending.' At that rate, each job cost about $800,000. And what about
all the Fed's pump priming? What about all the loan guarantees and
toxic asset purchases...and bailouts of the auto industry, AIG, the
banks, mortgage holders, Fannie and Freddie...etc. etc? That's all
stimulating too, isn't it? The total is said to be around $13 trillion,
putting the cost at $65 million for each job saved."

Typical government efficiency

 

What were you saying about Obama? The money both presidents spent helped keep the country from an implosion. It's unfortunate for sure. Where'd all the money for "distressed home owners" go?

March 2008: Bush stimulus $29 billion for Bear Stearns/JP Morgan Chase deal
May 2008: Bush stimulus $178 billion in tax rebate checks
July 2008: Bush stimulus $300 billion for distressed homeowners
July 2008: Bush stimulus $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
September 2008: Bush stimulus $50 billion to guarantee money market funds
September 2008: Bush stimulus $25 billion to Big 3 automakers
September-November 2008: Bush stimulus $150 billion to AIG
October 2008: Bush stimulus $700 billion to banks (TARP)
February 2009: Obama stimulus $787 billion in broad stimulus package
February 2009: Obama stimulus $75 billion for distressed homeowners
February 2009: Obama stimulus $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
March 2009: Obama stimulus $30 billion for AIG
March 2009: Obama Stimulus $15 billion for small business lending
March 2009: Obama Stimulus $1 trillion to get toxic assets off bank’s troubled asset sheets
March 2009: Obama Stimulus $22 billion for Big 3 Automakers Chrysler and GM

 

As far as touting. That is what the article writer was saying. I never agreed with the other stimulus bills either. At the time I was thinking, "why don't they let them go bankrupt and reorganize." I feel this way about the car companies also. My understanding is that most of the loan institutions have or are paying the government (our money) back. I hope this is true. These other programs are a net loss from what I've read. If they keep pumping money into Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac without tightening the loan rules we're going to be in the same boat again with more massive numbers of foreclosures and the Federal loan institutions failing. Of course, Barney Frank is encouraging the idea of making more of this type of loan which was the start, or at least a large portion, of the troubles we are in.