For my previous post on the economics of cash for clunkers, I tried to get Alan Blinder’s take—since the whole danged thing was his idea—but didn’t hear back from him on time. Now I’ve just gotten this e-mail from him:
I always thought that cash for clunkers would be an effective stimulus, but it seems to have exceeded expectations. It would be a shame to cut it off here. The original bill was way under-budgeted.
That said, I wasn’t happy with the design details, which pay too little attention to environmental concerns.