Perhaps a little economic heresy is in order.

Cartoon: By Pickering:

In the previous post some of the wastefulness of the BER scheme was mentioned, in regard to stimulus funds being spent on schools marked for closure. BER was only a part of a much greater scheme to spend as much money as possible as fast as possible, amounting to a mere $16 billion.

The suggestion of taxpayer-funded piss-ups was of course, tongue in cheek. Unfortunately with the possibility of the government thinking it a good idea not being completely out of the question, it is probably worth putting up something more rational.

Next time the government wishes to blow a lazy $16 billion, it could better be spent by giving $5 billion each to Clive Palmer, Twiggy Forrest, and Gina Rinehart, on condition that they each get a major resource project costing at least $10 billion into production within two years.

That way the money is at least doubled to $30-50 billion and all of them are capable of doing it if the government and regulatory authorities just get out of the way.

The extra billion could be used for fast-tracking, and the construction and maintenance of a nice institution for treatment of Greens and leftists who become deranged at this suggestion.

Its not a true libertarian solution, but its on the right track and better than Krugman could come up with.