Stanford Professor Offers an Alternative Stimulus Plan: a Rose on the Gray

Stanford Professor Offers Economic Hope: Hope Someone is Listening!

Finally, a Light hits the gloom on the Gray in the economic news. The Wednesday, November 18, 2009, Wall Street Journal had an opinion piece by Michael J. Boskin which actually offered the first economic hope I have felt in many months. The drawback is that this theory may not be understood or implemented by policymakers, and in that case, it will remain just HOPE.

The article is entitled "An Alternative Stimulus Plan," and it makes the most sense of any "econo-babble" I have heard lately. He discusses the rising unemployment rates despite the slightly upturning effects of Obama's Stimulus Plan. He presents the arguement that a simple payroll tax cut would increase employment. His figures are endorsed by other experts at Stanford University. He projects an increase in jobs equal to the amount lost since the beginning of Obama's Stimulus Plan, if only half of the amount of Stimulus money were applied in payroll tax cuts. It is amazing, and hopeful. Of course, again, I am hopeful that policymakers are listening.

After all, it doesn't matter much about anything in the economy, if people don't have jobs. My big problem with a lot of the stimulus plan goodies, from cash for clunkers to first time home buyer stimulus tax credits, is that it is targeted to people who have good jobs and good credit. (Not even mentioning the big bail-outs of banks.) Most of my friends here in the depressed South watched the news stories about the Cash for Clunkers program and wished they could have a car as nice as the ones headed for the scrap yard! I saw one just like the one my husband sacrificed and bought me second-hand last spring, which I was thrilled to have. If you don't have a job, it doesn't matter what the economic stimulus is doing. You don't have a job! And, the homeowners benefitting from the Home Stimulus Bill will not be in their home long, if they have no jobs to pay their modified mortgage payment.