Tim, Thanks for your thoughtful posts. I don't think anyone is disputing that wage subsidies could boost employment, and Emil thought that Carter's original proposal for an across-the-board subsidy would have done some good. The problem is what happens to these proposals in a political setting, and the challenges of designing and implementing an incremental subsidy. My guess is that the most effective way to boost employment is to boost demand, and that is certainly simpler than designing an incremental wage credit. Also, in this particular recession, the capital market failures seem more pressing than any labor market failures. If firms are starved for capital, labor productivity falls. So the other top priority is getting capital flowing again.