Posted on July 7, 2011

Ezra Klein: Without Stimulus, Bailout We Would Have 17% Unemployment

Washington Post columnist and MSNBC policy analyst Ezra Klein: "To put it in political perspective, I know the bailout is unpopular, I know the stimulus is unpopular. If we hadn't had the two of them, if we had just done nothing and not spent anymore money as Representative Bachmann is arguing, we would have had 16 or 17-percent unemployment in this country. I mean, we would have had a financial crisis, not a crisis but a meltdown."



However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic, the U-6 unemployment number was 15.8% in May 2011. The U-6 number is the "total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force."