The new "Stimulus" will be mostly for the benefit of the politicians

Real wages are UP.

CPI is DOWN.

Brian Wesbury and Bob Stein:

"Meanwhile, despite the fear (some of which is stoked by
political salesmanship) that the US faces the worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression, initial claims for
unemployment insurance have fallen dramatically, from
589,000 the week before Christmas to 467,000 in New
Year’s week. If initial claims come in for last week at the
consensus expected 501,000, the four-week moving average
would be down to 512,000, the lowest since November.

These figures signal that the most intense period of the
recession is behind us, not in front of us. Any 'stimulus'
applied by government has less to do with creating the
recovery than letting politicians take credit when the
recovery happens."

Related.....

The lessons of "Atlas Shrugged", from Stephen Moore:

"Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that 'Atlas Shrugged' parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her. But as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated 'Atlas' as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism."