Sunday, August 29, 2010

Investing in Jobs

Despite the assurances of Geithner & Co. things are not getting better, they are getting worse. Robert Shiller argues that we have to start spending federal money more wisely, mainly in creating jobs. One of the ways to do so is to give more money to state and local governments, most of which are prevented from running a deficit. Lord knows that there is much that needs to be done. Heck, cleaning up our infrastructure alone would generate thousands, if not millions, of jobs; the return on such an investment would be quite high.

Shiller is very clear that it is not a good idea to have Congress determine how the states should spend our money; Congressmen are not really close enough to local governments and local needs to make intelligent decisions in this area. Of course, one could argue what decisions Congressmen are capable of making, but that's a discussion for another day. The issue today is to get people back to work as quickly as possible.

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