A big smooch for the stimulus bill

From Santa Cruz, Calif., with love: A demonstration of how government can create demand

Published October 29, 2010 8:30PM (EDT)

Reader Fred Deakin alerted HTWW to a great  candidate for the most unlikely citation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the context of the words "touching" and "heartwarming": a video "thank you" to the politicians who passed the stimulus bill from the founders and owners of the Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz, Calif.

As explained in the video, the owners would never have been able to get a loan from a local bank without the 90 percent loan guarantee program from the Small Business Administration authorized by the Recovery Act. But that's not the endearing part of this low budget video. It's the parade of local Santa Cruz citizens facing the camera and saying "And then they hired me."

The name John Maynard Keynes is never mentioned, but this is how you create demand in a slumping economy. The White House, naturally, loves it, but after watching it, you have to wonder, why haven't they been aggressively promoting more stories like it?


By Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

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