"Failed" stimulus, businesses strangled by the noose of regulation, and no jobs. Is any of this true?

We are told the 2009 stimulus plan has failed, that the U.S. economy is stagnant, that both monetary and fiscal stimulus have failed to create jobs, and that because of high budget deficits and the current administration's increased enforcement of existing regulations and imposition of a host of new ones businesses are afraid to spend or hire. As I point out in the following, the fact is there has not been -in total- all that much fiscal stimulus applied to the economy, there has been net job growth, and over the course of last year, business investment recovered quite rapidly. I have spent last couple of weeks putting the following together: Several facts, a simple projection, and a few opinions. My plan is to fill this out with more detail and references, as time permits, over the next few weeks. The point remains, coming up with what I have so far was by no means all that tough. Anyone reporting on these important issues or making the sort of claims that are often being made should do no less than what I have done here.