Economic Stimulus: How Much Has Been Spent So Far?

We’ve all heard about economic stimulus packages, and, really, the big ones, like the $700 billion package or the housing rescue package are being talked about quite a bit. But there are smaller packages — like the student loan guarantees and the unemployment benefit extensions — that we don’t really know about. And then there are the huge expenditures that get brief coverage in the news: Commercial paper funding ($1.4 trillion) and money market guarantees ($719 billion).
When you think about it, even the $1 trillion economic stimulus being considered right now is really a drop in the bucket. It’s exceptionally …read more