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Economic Stimulus: The Promise and the Reality
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Economic Stimulus: The Promise and the Reality

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In two years, President Obama's stimulus package has not produced the infrastructure projects many people expected. Is that what it was really designed to do? We hear from two state "stimulus watchdogs" and others. Also, Goldman Sachs friends Facebook, and the US and much of the world are freezing in this age of global warming. How come?

Banner image: Union workers hold signs during a rally in support of a proposed stimulus reform package for the City of San Francisco March 15, 2010 in San Francisco, California. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Making News

Goldman Sachs Friends Facebook ()

Goldman Sachs is investing $450 million in Facebook, with another $50 million from a Russian firm called Digital Sky Technologies and a billion more from so-called "high net-worth clients." The deal values Facebook at $50 billion — more than eBay, Yahoo or Time Warner. Felix Salmon is finance blogger for Reuters.

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Main Topic

What Has 800 Billion in Stimulus Spending Bought? ()

During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt put four million people to work in four months. In two years, President Obama's $787 billion stimulus has failed to reduce unemployment as promised, and much of the money hasn't even been spent. When it was enacted in 2009, it was advertised as a fast-track program for hiring the unemployed as well as creating new jobs, and was to focus on projects called "shovel-ready?"  So-called stimulus watchdogs in Vermont and California say there is no such thing. What about the money that has been spent?  Has the Reinvestment and Recovery Act been a victim of false advertising as well as red tape?

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Reporter's Notebook

Why All the Extreme Weather? ()

Everybody knows about the winter weather — closing airports in Europe, collapsing the Metrodome roof in Minneapolis, and tying up much of the eastern United States. It's even unusually cold in Siberia. During the warmest decade on record, the Eastern US, Northern Europe and East Asia are experiencing their coldest and snowiest winters in 100 years. So what about global warming? Gavin Schmidt is a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Guests:
  • Gavin Schmidt: Climate Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

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