Blog Post #2: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The intent of the expansionary policy within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was to reduce the unemployment rate and raise the real GDP in the United States after the crash of the stock market in 2008, leading to a sizeable recession in the US and worldwide.
The two intended beneficiaries of the stimulus were individuals and businesses. Examples of benefits to individuals included payments to cover college tuition costs, unemployment benefits, and income tax credits for home buyers, people who recently had children, and people using environmentally friendly products. Many businesses also became eligible for tax credits for providing certain benefits for their employees, and also for using products contributing to the green economy.
These benefits and incentives for individuals and businesses were intended to improve short-term aggregate supply by boosting production, long-term aggregate supply by promoting a skilled, productive, and employed labor force, as well as technological improvements, and aggregate demand through increasing consumption.
SRAS improvement was the goal of policies aimed at giving certain businesses tax credits, intending for those firms to use that extra money to expand their production.
Policies aiming to allow workers to increase the affordability of education, and for the unemployed to receive benefits, hoped to improve LRAS for individuals. Policies that gave tax incentives to businesses that provided benefits to their employees and used green technology sought to improve the same curve for businesses.
Policies with the intention of improving aggregate demand included tax credits for individuals in order to let them keep more of their incomes, and through tax incentives on buying green products.
The policies within this act have a number of intended benefits to aggregate supply (both short-term and long-term) and aggregate demand, with the ultimate goal of raising real GDP and reducing the unemployment rate.