I'm certainly not happy with lifting the ban on off-shore drilling. I understand why it was done, I just don't see it as a sustainable venture. It may drop prices in the short term, but there's not a lot of oil (more natural gas) off the Virginia coast. The tar balls and waste water will certainly ruin my beaches and salt marshes, so I got that going for me.
I did my part to stimulate the economy, so now it's a waiting game. Everything I've read recently is pointing to a rebound, but Swerb's right about the unemployment, I think it will stay high for a while longer. There just isn't a lot of product manufactured in the US anymore. People got greedy and outsourced a lot of work. This is the result.
The Fed needs to take hit on those mortgages and get them sold. A lot of first time home buyers don't realize how much it takes to actually buy a house. You can do the math to figure out the monthly payments, but closing costs and down payments require a lot of initial capital. If they could take that 8K tax credit and get it to the buyers early in the process, that would get the housing market rolling, increase tax revenue and retail sales as well.
It sucks to save money for a few years to get the 3.5% down payment for mortgage, just to realize that you need an additional 5K to close.
EDIT:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/02/news/ec ... tm?cnn=yes
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