A number of scholars think any amount of federal stimulus to the economy may not actually revive the economy. I have heard this view from multiple corners over the last few months, it seems to be gathering consensus. As we all know, the Federal loan rate can't go lower than zero and as a fiscal policy tool it is maxed out. There only so many fiscal policy tools left to use at this point, and there was an economist on NPR yesterday who was against the Obama public works proposals because he thought most of the projects would be useless on a practical level and the money would do little to revive the economy. He was for seriously lowering taxes and letting whatever entities tend to fail go ahead and fail.