First of all, I want to say that I have no proof to support the rumors that economic policy is designed by mindless zombies who habitually repeat what they heard “experts” say. However, the shape of the final stimulus package may provide evidence for this proposition.

The basic story is that we get a bit more than $100 billion in tax breaks for individuals and about $40 billion for businesses. There is nothing by way of infrastructure and certainly nothing green. (Anyone in this town hear of “global warming?)

Perhaps half of the individual tax breaks will be spent by the end of the year, and maybe a fifth of the business tax breaks. That gives us about $60 billion in spending to counteract the collapse of an $8 trillion housing bubble.

The economists who missed the housing bubble (EWMHB) have given us a weak unimaginative stimulus package.

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It’s not often that I take issue with Paul Krugman’s economics (at least not recently), but he does misrepresent the issues in going after Obama on health insurance mandates.

The simple story is that any effort to establish national health insurance will require some anti-free loader mechanism to prevent gaming. The logic is straightforward. Everyone agrees that we want to get rid of the current practice under which insurers are allowed to charge fees based on people’s health. Under this system, people with serious illnesses either must pay exorbitant fees or will be unable to get insurance altogether. (Insurance companies lose money if they insure people with high bills.)

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