Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
Uhhh....first of all there were a tonne of people predicting the collapse of 2008.
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This is not correct at all. If it were, a bunch of very smart people at very smart investment banks and insurance companies would not be bankrupt right now. About the only people who saw this coming en masse in advance was Goldman Sachs who were shorting the **** as they peddled it. Throw in a few traders and small funds and that's it. To everyone interested in the topic I suggest you read The Big Short. There were, however, no shortage of people afterwards who came out and said "knew it" with little to no evidence to the fact.
As for the effectiveness of the stimulus, I agree with you in part. Some parts were ineffective and really just buying votes (lots of the EAP). Other parts were good - infrastructure spending will have much longer benefits than the Fraser Institute considered in their 2010 report. Other parts were great - bailing out the auto industry.
All in all, the Conservatives did a pretty great job handling the great recession. A large part of how we came out of it though needs to be attributed to the sound financial system put in place by previous Liberal governments.