Was stimulus spending useless?

The Fraser Institute, a conservative think-tank, says the Canadian government’s $47.2 billion in stimulus spending created massive deficits while doing nothing to curb the recent recession. A new study from the group says the spending accounted for only 0.2 per cent of the 1.1 per cent GDP growth between the second and third quarters of 2009, and that it had no impact on the one per cent growth in the third and fourth quarter of that year. The report instead gives credit to "private-sector investment and increased exports" for the economic turnaround. It also says the small impact of stimulus spending shouldn’t come as a surprise, as most government spending was earmarked for infrastructure projects, which only show results over a long period of time.

CBC News