Reading this piece on the online of the Wall Street Journal, I found out that there is a curious item in the large bailout plan that the administration of president Obama intends to carry out. All arguments for and against the bailout plan are based on the degree to which investment in infrastructure and tax cuts would provide a stimulus for the US economy. To state it clearly, I think that the efficacy of monetary policy in the present situation is nil as interest rates are close to zero. As a result, a Keynesian approach is rationale and more likely to work as I argued in this post.
The surprise to me is that a small but not insignificant portion of the stimulus plan provides for family planning services. This would be extremely atrocious on its own without the Malthusian arguments that accompanied Nancy Pelosi's statements. To my mind, it is arguable that a stimulus would allow low income US citizens to keep their jobs, expand their consumption and get businesses to stay open. For all its merits, the insertion of a family planning initiative in the stimulus package is a bad idea. Notwithstanding the fact that I have found the arguments in support of the stimulus package more convincing, this revelation merely shows that large public programmes often end up paying for ridiculous things. family planning is not an appropriate instrument for economic stimulus.
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1 comment:
You can dig all you want, but there is no pony hiding under the Democrat's stimulus manure pile. There is no pony hiding in the stimulus "pile of manure"
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