Versailles-on-the-Potomac can't disabuse itself of the notion that further Keynesian pushes will accomplish something noteworthy. It is launching a new research tax credit presumably to win back businesses burned by health-care reform's new tax burden. It's also trying to goad lenders into writing off 10% of a troubled mortgage.
I'll say it right now. Both of these ideas are a waste of time and money. The R&D thing is a net zero, as it will be paid for by rolling back other corporate tax loopholes. The mortgage write-off plan is DOA as soon as banks realize that writing off 10% of a loan that's more than 10% underwater will destroy their balance sheets.
I will give some credit to the proposed $50B infrastructure stimulus provided that it is actually spent on those assets in the public commons that only government can influence: ports, river locks and gates, railway rights-of-way, and such. If it's wasted adding sidewalks on roads to vacated suburbs, forget it. That's where the last stimulus effort mostly went (with a few exceptions like upgrading barge locks on the Mississippi River).
I read about stuff like this because I need amusement.
