Even before this morning's bad employment numbers came out (see previous posting), talk had already started in Washington about yet another stimulus package. According to the Wall Street Journal:
Already, Lawrence Summers, the former Clinton Treasury Secretary, and Robert Shiller, the Yale economist, are advocating some sort of additional stimulus. Democrats on Capitol Hill are discussing legislation to boost the economy. And the presidential candidates are also mulling ways to spur growth.
Most of these are ideas that have been discussed for a number of months: helping housing, increased spending on infrastructure, etc. That is all well and good. But I think we need to think more broadly. Let me repeat what I said in April:
If there is a further stimulus package, it should include some elements that help the I-Cubed Economy. Let me make a suggestion. Add a tax break for worker training -- a knowledge creation tax credit. In a time of slower production, rather than send workers to the unemployment office, let's send them to the classroom. If we can give companies a tax break for a new piece of equipment (as we did in the first stimulus package), surely we can give companies a tax break to upgrade their most valuable asset: their workers.
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