Quaint Economic Stimulus of Yore: When $4 Billion Used to be Real Money

In 1935, Science and Mechanics magazine noted that Congress appropriated the "stupendous sum" of $4.88 billion for an economic stimulus (the National Industrial Recovery Act, which is largely considered to be a policy failure by historians).

$4,880,000,000 may seem quaint by today's standards - but it used to be real money back then. You can take a look at the illustrated comparisons of what $4.88 billion look like over at Modern Mechanix, but I particularly like this one:

Where's my bucket? I volunteer (if I can keep some for mahself!) Link


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That's about 2 Trillion in today's dollars.

Government stimulus always has the opposite effect of what is intended, because it is by definition a misallocation of capital.
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