So the boys from Chicago are skeptical of the stimulus package and Catherine Rampell reports on it depth in her NYT blog. Which is nice because it broadens the blog, adding a far right point of view to the already overrepresented center right opinions that the reader finds there.

And at least some of them seem to want to avoid fiscal stimulus as a part of a real time economic experiment:

Robert E. Lucas, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, wrote that Fed policy (as opposed to, presumably, fiscal policy) is the best means for digging the country out of recession.

Which would work something like this: There has been a great deal of dispute among economic historians about what would have cured the Great Depression with at least one school of thought - founded by Milton Friedman - asserting that if we had waited long enough and maintained a steady growth of the money supply all would have come out well in the long run.

Now that we have a Depression to work with - they tell us - it is a perfect time to try this theory and see if it works.

Wonks Anonymous would like to point out that these folks were also big supporters of Supply Side Tax Cuts - these would increase revenue and lead to balanced budgets - and Financial Deregulation - firms would be prudent and honest in order to guard their reputations.

And Wonks Anonymous would like to point out that these guys, to a man have tenured academic positions and the TARP program has already made sure that the assets of their friends in finance are intact.

But maybe massive wage cuts, large scale price drops and widespread bankruptcy will eventually bring the economy around and tempt the super rich to spend once more. Nobody but the little folk will lose if it doesn't work.