Stimulus

My column for this week will focus on the need for another round of economic stimulus to spur employment, albeit a smaller, more efficiently targeted one (and it's safe to say the column wouldn't be necessary had the original package targeted its tax credits better and relied on direct employment of workers rather than a mis-mosh of 'bipartisan' ideas that were, for the most part, devoid of economic data and research).

Anyway, a friend forwarded me this link from Marginal Revolution calling for a reduction in the payroll tax to help spur employment. I've always been lukewarm to calls for a reduction in the payroll tax for practical concerns (i.e. the impact on revenues funding Social Security), as well as political ones (i.e. a long-standing goal of conservatives to undermine one of the most successful progressive policy initiatives in the nation's history). Still, if John Maynard Keynes liked it, then I suppose it can't be a horrible idea.

It's an interesting read.