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Ezra Klein says we should think about the wisdom of a second stimulus as follows:
Imagine I'm at the market and I'm predicting how hungry I'll be later tonight. I figure I'll have a big lunch, so I buy a modest dinner. I get busy, though. I don't eat a big lunch. I eat my modest dinner. I'm still hungry.
Did my dinner "not work"? No. My level of hunger changed. And that's what looks to have happened here: The stimulus was built for lower unemployment expectations. We can assume the stimulus will work in blunting some of the impact, but also predict, quite confidently, that it will not be fully up to the task. The question is whether we should go back to the store for more dinner materials after our light lunch, knowing we'll need it later? Or wait and hope that our small dinner is enough, knowing the stores might be closed and we won't be able to get anything?
I'd say this analogy is perfect, except that the shopper should take into account the fact that he doesn't actually have any money to pay for more groceries, so that he'll have to put anything he buys on an already maxed out credit card that extends extra buying power only at a hefty interest rate. Also, a good percentage of whatever the shopper buys is going to just fall out of the bag on the way home and be wasted on the side of the road. Nor will the food taste particularly good, or be very healthy.
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