by Laura Conaway

Recessions have a miserable tendency to curb everyone's ambitions. Four examples:

President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan may not be big enough to offset the loss in jobs, and in any case a disproportionate share of its transit spending is going to rural areas instead of the major metropolitan areas at the heart of the American economy.

California, facing a $26.3 billion deficit, is struggling to pay for all the punishment its lawmakers (and citizen lawmakers) want meted out to criminals. It has turned loose dozens of parole violators with less than 60 days left on their terms.

 

The U.S. Treasury is dialing back its Public Private Investment Program — PPIP — from a possible $1 trillion effort to vacuum toxic assets (uh, Legacy Assets) off bank balance sheets. It'll now be more of $30 billion program, mostly due to lack of market interest now that the banking system isn't quite at death's door. Among the major players to bail was bond giant PIMCO, with very little in the way of explanation.

At the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, negotiations over combating climate change led to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon blasted rich nations for not providing enough incentive and support to emerging nations like China. Currency analyst Marc Chandler notes there's been no particular progress on any of the debate about whether the dollar should remain the global reserve currency. "The G8 draft indicates support for a 'stable' and 'well-functioning' international monetary system," he writes. Sounds like a plan.