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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;V. Kurt Bellman, post: 2114848, member: 71723&quot;]This much I can tell you for certain - if and when any significant recoveries happen in Pennsylvania, the role of the state government will be as close to zero as anything ever gets. By constitution, our state tax rates must be flat and uniform, so our fiscal policy impact is nil. If we &quot;kick a can down the road&quot; all we get when we get there is a bigger can that will hurt the foot more. We&#039;re not allowed to monetize state debt. It comes out of the taxpayers&#039; hides, and only from there. All of them, and at a uniform flat rate. &quot;Pay me now, or pay me later, with accrued interest.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>States can&#039;t engage in Keynesianism. Only the federals may. And yet this Congress refuses, even as the need explodes. Federal Reserve policy can only do so much. It is like trying to open a wooden hatch by pushing on its rope. Unless something is straining at the hatch, nothing happens. Congress&#039; role is creating the push on the hatch, and they have largely defaulted on their duty since the recession began. The much-maligned stimulus was too late, far too little, and ended too soon.</p><p><br /></p><p>As eventual Fed Chair Janet Yellen said when the depth of the crisis was beginning to be appreciated, by the formulas, the correct interest rate should have been negative 6 percent.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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