Welcome! Steve

I harvested some of your ideas and put them into the BusinessWeek story on Vox Stimuli. It's out this week.

Here's the intro:


Just imagine. A half-trillion dollars (or maybe more) pops up in your bank account along with an assignment: Your job is to spend that money on the country's behalf, jump-starting the sick economy and creating jobs. Where do you begin?

Over the l… Continue

If you're a Twitterer and you feel like weighing in on the issues we're covering here, simply include #voxstimuli in your tweets, and they'll show up on our VoxStimuli blog

BusinessWeek Economist Mike Mandel writes that a broadband investment in the econ stimulus package could create hundreds of thousands of tech jobs. This is important, because the efficiencies that technology bring often lead to losses in jobs--which is not what this economy needs right now.

Mandel writes:

This shortfall in communications jobs,… Continue

I'm assuming that if Obama cuts taxes by $300 billion, stimulus spending falls. For starters, I'd be happy if Obama and Co pulled the plug on ethanol investments, which barely replace a drop of oil. Are there other infrastructure/stimulus projects which should be cut? Highways that shouldn't be repaved? Waste in winterization projects? Mob museums? All ideas welcome.

Work out the cost-benefit ratio for this one: a new mob museum in Las Vegas. I just came across the item in Vegas' KXNT radio site:

Mayor Oscar Goodman is looking to bring more tourists and more traffic to the downtown area, and he says if federal stimulus money can help fund some big-ticket projects, such as the Mob Museum, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and the proposed new city hall, then they'll take it… Continue