I am sure all of you have heard the news recently concerning the worries about the economy heading towards or being in a recession. The pundents are preaching doom and gloom and the news is scaring everyone, which is what news stations love to do. Not to say that I disagree about the recession part; it is my personal and humble opinion that we are in a recession. Also, two years from now when all the data is in the National Bureau of Economic Research, it will show that maybe from middle 2007 to about year end 2008 we are in fact in a recession. But that is not my topic of choice today, I would like to touch on the news of President Bush’s proposed tax rebate to help stimulate the economy.

The proposal is a $600 rebate for an individual and $1200 for a family. The hope is that the consumers will turn around and spend this money in the economy, thus stimulating growth. Yeah I know, there are more business cuts and such, but the big news is the rebate for the consumer. I would like to point out a major and fatal flaw of the rebate program as a stimulus package: it is a one time rebate! Providing a person with $600 or $1200, depending on the situation, in the beginning of the year will not create a change in the consumers individual long-term spending. In order for the stimulus package to work, you need to provide the consumer with a long-term change in there income in order for the consumer to feel comfortable changing their spending habits.

Think about this as you finish reading the post, what would you do with the $600 or $1200 dollars that the government plans on giving to you for 2008? Are you going to increase your spending for the year? Maybe buy a new car or some fancy new electronics? Or will you spend it on some bills or simply just save the money? Me personally, I know we will save it if we get it. I may go out and spend a small portion of it but the money is not long-term nor is it substantial enough for me to change my spending habits.

Sorry Mr. President but you need to do a little something more to stimulate an economy. Or perhaps this is just a political stance to help give your fellow Republicans a little positive press going into a crucial election year.

Being a young economist in this new age where the study has been moving away from the Neo-Keynsian School of Thought to a “new, modern” Classical approach, I find myself oddly (or maybe not so oddly) drawn to any new way of approaching the “Dismal Science” as it has so cleverly been tagged. The one new age economist I have found to really admire and enjoy reading any of his publications is Steven Levitt out of the University of Chicago and co-author of the widely popular Freakonomics. Recently Dr. Levitt (presume he has his Ph.D.) and Stephen Dubner released a new edition of Freakonomics and have also started a blog which I have been fortunate enough to find. A post recently on the website caught my attention with the title Cut God Some Slack

I find the posting to touch on something so true and that is why are anti-God books so popular. So, why are anti-God books so popular? I am not much of a Christian, though I once was and even though I sometimes despise the thought of organized religion, I never find the urge to pick up a book that tells me why I shouldn’t believe in God. I agree with Dr. Levitt when he says:

I’m just not that interested in God. I’m definitely not interested enough to go out and buy books explaining to me why I shouldn’t believe in God, even when they are written by people like Dennett and Dawkins, whom I greatly admire. If I were religious, I think it would be even more likely that I would go out of my way to avoid books telling me that my faith was misplaced.

Now I understand that religion is very polarizing, especially for different sects of religion but do people who don’t believe in God really hate the idea of God so much that they run out and buy these books to remind them? (okay so this again was from Dr. Levitt but I wanted to sound smart!)

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