Tax credits again, this time to convince employers to hire more workers!
There is absolutely no evidence that schemes of this kind make any difference in terms of unemployment. Tax cuts and tax credits provide the least bang for the buck of all stimulus measures, but don’t tell that to the collection of idiots called the US Congress.
What’s needed is a real jobs program: a new WPA that would put Americans to work on fixing the woefully inadequate infrastructure, with a budget in the range of $1-2 trillion. There are plenty of projects ready to go and plenty of workers ready to work.
And/or a vast increase in aid to the states, preferably in the form of a guarantee against deficits for the next three years. Remarkably, many Americans will think this a good idea, when the alternative is closing schools, and laying off teachers, policemen, and firemen.
Instead, we get tax credit junk and an “unemployment bill” that spends no more than $140 billion when the output gap in the US economy exceeds $2 trillion.
Gorilla says: “To paraphrase Nat King Cole: ungovernable, that’s what we are!”
Tags: unemployment