i think this is a dud. Here's why.

The federal reserve and the treasury dept steer monetary policy.

The federal reserve has welcomed inflation ( bernanke is traumatized by deflaton and spent his life studying great depression). The federal reserve has decided to lower interest rates from 5 % to 2% appox. This has driven down the value of the dollar in exchange for other currency's. The dollar has fallen 15% in the last year alone against the euro.

So basically each dollar in your pocked has lost 15 cents or 15% of it value = purchasing power. yes as someone pointed out it is not "worth" anything but fiat money (money not backed by gold or silver) is a confidence game and as long as one can use this in exchange for goods it has a value.

Take the amount of money you made last year. Assuming you make the same or close this year, you can substract 15% of that money from this year's earnings because that is equal to the amount of purchasing power you lost. This will be reflected in your dollar not going as far toward your purchases. My guess is that (if you are lucky enought to have a job still) 15% of your income is alot more than $600 (amount of rebate check).
So in reality this stimulus check is bascially the gov't/fed being kind enough to pay you to buy alot of lube as they continue to bend you over.

In the past the U.S has been able to get away with depreciating currency and export the inflation throughout the world while prices at home stay pretty low, thanks to china and japan (and europe to lesser degree) keeping their currency's weak to keep their exports high. The problem now is that Deregulation and lack of supervision in over the counter derivatives trading regarding commodity futures in american and on the Ice exchange in europe has allowed tremendous speculation in oil and food commodity's. This has caused prices to SOAR and food and energy prices to rise for consumers in america, on top of the fact that China and Japan have allowed their currency's to appreciate faster than usual, causing higher prices in their imported goods as well.

The Commodity futures market is so poorly regulated thanks to believe it or not a ton of lobbying by banks and corporations (especially.....ENRON) in the late 90's) that these speculative bubbles have been allowed to occur, the doors in washington revolve very smoothly from gov't organizations to private organizations and that opens the door for a huge moral hazard you could drive a truck through.

P.S with higher feed prices for farmers expect even more upward pressure on prices as long as the interest rates are accomodative by the fed. Oh ya and monsanto is in bed with the gov't and they are making a pretty penny lately. what a co-incidence.

[edit on 6-5-2008 by cpdaman]

One of my friends got his stimulus payment. I still have yet to see mine. I think it is overdue.

It's something that will be helpfull in the short term, but long term...

I would like to get my brakes fixed on my new vehicle (used, but new to me).

Troy

Well, I'm still waiting. Shouldn't I have getten this check by now?

I'm wondering, is this thing actually coming.

I did have some state taxes ($10) that were delinquent, but that is now taken care of. Could that be the hold up?

Troy

You know, I don' t know a single person who has gotten a check to this day. I have several freinds and family members who filed electronically, from home, and used direct deposit, according to the schedule those should have already been recieved. Not being nosy but have ANY of you gotten a check yet?

Yeah, I finally got mine, but it was not $600.

It was $333, quite a bit different than the $600 I thought I might get.

The amount you get seems to have to do with your 2007 tax liability. And the amount of dilenquent taxes was a mere $10. I don't know if this had anything to do with it?

One of my friends got the full amount for him, his wife, and his two kids. From what I remember of the amount hr stated.

Troy

deal!

for his pals and their record oil profits yet again, because you know that's where all the money went.

and how far is that piddling little $500 going to go for my 80-year old dad in ny who just got a $5000 prebill for his heating oil for the upcoming winter. oh wait. he's on a fixed income and didn't get a deal.

freaking crooks. and freaking people who believe this isn't all to line the freaking crooks' pockets.

Originally posted by space cadet
being nosy but have ANY of you gotten a check yet?

Nope and I don't think I will be getting one either. I signed up for it, electronically filed for it, my fiancee got his... but according to irs.gov I didn't make enough or something. It's all BS. I even claimed my son and it didn't do anything.

I wish I would have gotten a stimulus package. Apparently really poor people do not get a package. Even when they pay taxes. I made less than three grand and I paid 165 dollars tax on that. None was refunded to me. But I did not get a stimulus package while folks who made many thousands of dollars more than I did and probably received a refund still got a stimulus package.

Who was this aimed at? Obviously not the really poor.

My dad got a six hundred dollar check at the end of May.

[edit on 8-1-2008 by groingrinder]

Probably didn't make a huge difference but I'm wondering how many of the folks that called it a DUD actually refused to accept their check.

Kinda like atheists that choose to take their Christmas vacation when they should be working during that time instead.

I'm on disability and haven't had to file a tax return in a few years now. To me, this disbility is a government liability, not mine. No doubt, I'll have to pay that back when and if I return to work at a higher tax rate. To file a tax return after losing so much in my 401k, I just can't justify it as if agreeing to a rebate on my losses.