We are in a secular decline. i.e. we have wrung all the excess profits out of current mass technology (computers and controllers, communication advances). There is nothing on the immediate horizon that can absorb all the profits at a good rate of return."We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and now if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosper. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot."
From a Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau 1939 diary entry.
The only thing that can be done is to put more (and it does not require much) money into research. i.e. lay the ground work for the next advance.
All the stimulating in the world will not help because people are paying down debts. All the stimulus will do is build up government debt.
And the people are smarter than the government and economists. They don't want any more bail outs. All they do is prop up failing companies. If the companies failed those left would be in a better position. So the stimulating and bailing are long term detrimental.