Economic Policy Links, 2-17-12

Here's an infographic the Congressional Budget Office created to display federal spending, revenues, and deficits, and debt.

An analysis by the CBO projects that TARP ("the bailout"), which authorized spending of $700 billion, will end up costing taxpayers $34 billion because the most of the loans are being repaid with interest.

A poll of top economists find that they strongly agree the stimulus plan created more jobs in the short-run and agree less strongly that the benefits of the stimulus will outweigh costs in the long-run.

As I mentioned in class, the US is currently experiencing its longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression

Paul Krugman argues that few people understand the debt and, hence, overstate it's significance in the near future.

Here's a story 60 Minutes did last fall on Grover Norquist and "the pledge" that most congressional Republicans have signed to never raise taxes

The Economist says it was wrong to oppose the GM bailout and that Mitt Romney should say similarly