I agree that any kind of stimulation package isn’t very intelligent. However, in terms of stimulating the economy, it was probably more effective back in 2001 than it will be now. That said, I think the payout in 2001 was given too much credit for influencing the economy.

You know as I do that 9/11 was a terrible event in U.S. history, but the short term memory of Americans and the influences on the economy back then made for a completely different outcome than it will now.

Back then, the events that played out on television tugged at our heart strings, but when that extra money came in, we went straight for the local Starbucks to get those $6 triple mocha lattes to go.

Fast forward 7 years. We don’t have a terrorist event to weigh on our emotions like we did back then, and we don’t feel obligated to run out and buy the comfort food or impulse items that make us feel better about our selves. Now we have credit card debt, rising mortgage rates, increasing gas prices and a deflating dollar.

I agree 100% that to stimulate the economy, you need to provide incentive to big corporate entities to spend big money they already have.

Giving you and I $600 a piece isn’t going to cut it.

To really stimulate the economy through a monetary handout, that handout has to be huge, like thousands of dollars vs. hundreds. There’s no way our even our fiscally irresponsible politicians would spring for that. Economists would say it would work, but the Fed would have to lower rates even further to absorb the economic impact that kind of money would have on the dollar.

As for me, that $600 would go straight to the savings account, and I’d never even think twice.

I couldn’t agree more. A knee jerk election year reaction to an economic situation much more complex than the ’solution’ warrants. You are exactly right. Since a major cause of the current economic upheaval stems from debt, it makes sense, as Brooke writes, that a significant amount of money coming in will go toward paying down household debt. It is much more about providing fast, and short term, motivation for corporations to make immediate investments in equipment, employment and long term capital improvements. But then the Bush administration reacted to 9/11 by giving people money to go shopping, so let’s see, we have another crisis, why don’t we give people money to go shopping. It wasn’t very intelligent then and its not very intelligent now.

David