A Liberal Lecture on Economics (and Why It Won’t Work) – hotair.com 07/12/2009 The editors of The Washington Postdemand to know why a second economic “stimulus” is needed. Dean Baker of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research hinges his reply on this analysis:The collapse of the housing bubble led to a reduction in annual rates of construction of about $450 billion. The bubble in the non-residential sector is also in the process of collapsing, cutting annual demand by approximately $200 billion.