I recall during the early months (or years?) of the Iraq war pretty harsh criticism that Bush and Cheney didn't have an exit strategy, nor did they have a clear definition of what constituted 'success' of the operation.

Now, with the Simulus Bill all but signed into law, I wonder the same question.  With a business plan, we all lay out our business goals, objectives and targets for the year.  To be effective, our goals and targets need to be measurable and tangiable.  If I just say I'm going to grow my business this year.  That is a vague goal, very hard to measure success and as a business owner, its hard to focus on a blurry goal line.

What does it mean to 'grow' my business?  Get one more job this year than last?  Make at least $1.00 more this year than last?  Make 1 more business associate than I had last year?  Better to say, grow my business income by 10%.  A well defined goal, that is measurable and worthy. 

With this stimulus bill, how will we know if it is or isn't successful or even working?  We will know how much money is spent for sure and where it went, but when will the administration declare 'success'? 

When the stock market is back above 10000? (artificially or not?)

When property values are stable? or when property values are back to their 2006 values (whether over inflated or not?)

When we lower unemployment by creating just 1 new job? or by 25%?

Whether or not the stimulus bill is actually going to stimulate anything has been well debated in many many forums.  What I haven't heard any one ask is 'How do we know its working?' and 'How do we measure its success?"

I am sure that business students and political students will be studying this era decades from now, and history will show on a large scale whether we take the right path today or not.  But I think by being vague about specific goals and objectives will naturally lead to vague and maybe inappropriate claims of 'victory' before any real victory is in hand. 

To borrow from Hyundai........."Think about it...."