Paul Krugman, winner of the nobel prize in economics, wrote in the New York Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26krugman.html?hp
It’s true that the normal response to recessions is interest-rate cuts from the Fed, not government spending. And that might be the best option right now, if it were available. But it isn’t, because we’re in a situation not seen since the 1930s: the interest rates the Fed controls are already effectively at zero.
Paul, paul, PAUL! You have missed something any high school student knows by writ. Less that zero, is negative numbers. It's clear to me that the federal government needs to start paying interest to the owners of all these bad loans. The goal of the economic stimulus plan is to help those that are hardest hit, and who is harder hit than the people who can't pay their mortgages and debt? With a simple -1.0% interest rate we can effectively reverse this entire economic catastrophe by simply paying people to not pay off their debt.
In order to really promote liquidity and get American's out shopping more we should institute this on savings accounts and investments as well. From now on, you should be charged money to keep your money. -5% ought to work just nicely as an incentive to divest yourself of your life savings. It's just simple numbers, Paul.