Beneath the fold in Paul Krugman’s column today, was this little tidbit, “The Congressional Budget Office, not usually given to hyperbole, predicts that over the next three years there will be a $2.9 trillion gap between what the economy could produce and what it will actually produce. And $800 billion, while it sounds like a lot of money, isn’t nearly enough to bridge that chasm.” Last your our GNP was about $14.3T, so it represents about 20.2%.

Having aced Economics 101, this sounds like the perfect capitalist storm. But before we go there, consider what it means to society and in people terms. Society will lose the benefit $2.9T of good and of wealth that could be produced. A loss to be written off and will not happen. In people terms, it will be a decrease of $2.T in our standard of living that could have been. These things are tragic results and should be mourned.

From a capitalist 101 point of view, its impact can be devastating and difficult to turn around. Unit costs of manufacturing will go up. Low demand will mean prices will be down. Which will mean profits will be down. Which will mean employment will go down. Which will mean consumption will go down. Which will mean capacity will go down. And it repeats. Until we turn turn it around or become third world.

So what is the right stimulus amount and is $800B not enough? Read the rest of this story]]> http://onthewayhere.com/2009/02/its-the-capacity-stupid/feed/ 0