Metrics

What metrics are we supposed to use to evaluate whether the stimulus is working or not?

The job outlook is still grim. Unemployment numbers are evening out because they aren't counting "discouraged workers." Emergency claims are up. But proponents of the stimulus claim "things would have been worse." Really? How can we know that? You could almost make the same claim for any bad policy. What would Democrats have argued in 2007 when the Iraq War was in the tank if Bush had said, "things could have been worse." The claim is unknowable in an economy this complex.