As the stimulus printing-presses in the United States are working in overdrive to try to restore enough confidence to unfreeze the hording of surplus money, which is rather counterintuitive since the easing of financial instruments (i.e., printing more money or selling more dubious debt to cover these outlays) threatens deflation, making money worth more by making things cost less, there is some dangerous momentum being set off. Regardless of what gossip is going on in broader stock markets, however, it is the wages of the wage-earners that is the bottom-line--BLUF is a misleading acronym for "bottom-line up front" that I always thought was an ironic way to start out a communiquรฉ, no, seriously.
On that front, whether distinct or not from instilling confidence in market fundamentals, stimulus dollars have also been allocated in what some would call "make-work" programs to improve infrastructure. Making the delivery systems, roads and utilities, of America better and more efficient is a worthwhile cause, since better and more reliable transportation and support systems are the only things giving the US a slight advantage over India and China, but I am sure that such initiatives are the brunt of a lot of criticism: utility companies in whatever form, from the internets, to the telecoms, to the gas and electric companies, are despicable things that always breed a begrudging relationship, and when compared to the stuff of Roosevelt's New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Hoover Dam, national monuments and stupendous gothic revival city halls and courthouses, a few filled potholes and hydrogen powered busses seem rather boring. Repairing and improving infrastructure is very important, but I do hope that same sentiment is not further transmuted to bolstering America's bucket-brigade of garrisoned and standing armies worldwide. It is a disservice to peace and security by posturing as the world's police force and imperial guard. There are dwindling occasions where such expansionist policy serves the US well, aside from political bullying in the interest of US corporations--a very bad thing though perhaps diabolically astute, and in case of an alien invasion, whose justification I might believe if they were trying to sell it that way.
