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History News Network

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Federal aid to ease a recession? History suggests it's always too late

The history of anti-recession efforts is that they are almost always initiated too late to do any good. This chart, based on recession timelines from the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows the enactment of stimulus plans is a fairly accurate indicator that we have hit the bottom of the business cycle, meaning the economy will improve even if the government does nothing.

[HNN Editor: Click on SOURCE link to view chart.]
Read entire article at Bruce Bartlett, uthor of “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” in the NYT