High on the stimulus plan
The check is in the mail, or soon will be. Here is reaction from FMI on stimulus plan:
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) praised the White House and Congress for swift and well-targeted action to boost consumer spending and business investment as President George W. Bush signed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 this afternoon.
“This plan puts more than $100 billion into the hands of consumers who need it the most to help pay for life’s necessities,” said FMI President and CEO Tim Hammonds. “Businesses can use the other $45 billion to employ more people and invest in growth and technology.”
“This stimulus package will benefit food retailers, especially smaller ones, who are expanding job-rich prepared foods departments, health and wellness programs and other consumer services to compete more effectively,” he said. “They can also use the funds from increased deductions and depreciation to upgrade computer systems, particularly software — essential investments for an industry undergoing fast-paced technological change.”
“The timing of this plan could not be better,” Hammonds added. “It is most encouraging to see decisive bipartisan action that benefits American consumers and the U.S. economy. We encourage Washington to address other consumer and economic issues with the same bipartisan spirit. These include reining in inflated credit card fees and taking action to reduce organized retail crime.”
The stimulus plan will provide rebates as high as $600 for individuals and $1,200 for married couples. For businesses, it doubles the Section 179 deduction for investments to $250,000 in 2008. The plan also provides businesses a 50 percent increase in first-year depreciation for investments in property, including computer software.
Labels: credit card, FDA
posted by Tom Karst @ 7:09 PM
2 Comments:
My guess is that the consumers will use the money to pay down existing debt - probably credit cards. Good for banks. The hiring of food service workers assumes that there will be people with jobs to buy the value added packs. Unless its the (minimum wage) food workers doing the purchasing I don't see where the customer base is going to be expanded from. Expect lay-offs after capital improvements at the public expense. Rather create real jobs so consumers can buy from a new market initiative. This is a chump change, voodoo economic package whose benefits will be hard tested.
It's funny you say "voodoo" economics b/c Arthur Laffer, the supply side economist who George Bush refered to as "voodoo" economics when running against Ronald Reagan in 1980, wrote a critical piece in the Wall Street Journal about the stimulus package.
To summarize: it's robbing peter to pay paul, except both peter and paul will be poorer in the long run.
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