Stimulus Checks Revisited

Markham Lee submits:If you recall I  previously noted that the increase in May's personal savings rate roughly matched the amount of stimulus checks issued during that time period, indicating that the majority of stimulus checks were saved rather than spent. It now appears that same thing occurred this past June: (From the WSJ): Matthew D. Shapiro and Joel Slemrod of the University of Michigan wrote the pre-eminent paper on the government’s 2001 stimulus payment . They have examined the preliminary data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and come to the conclusion that most of the 2008 stimulus payments went into savings. In the following analysis provided to Real Time Economics, Messrs. Shapiro and Slemrod suggest a second round of stimulus being considered by the government would be better spent on infrastructure investments of payments to states:Complete Story »