This stimulus package is intended to get both the Administration and Congress off the hook, so it would appear that they are really doing something about the economy before the election. As Jessie Jackson Sr. remarked, "The money will get you a gift card at Wal-Mart." Actually, it will get you a couple of tanks of gas and some more groceries

We are either already in or going into a recession, at least, and possibly a major depression. I think this laissez-faire, free trade, globalized economy is about to tank in a big way, and it may happen before the election. If not, the next administration will have to deal with it. So the gentleman from St. Louis is right and we'd better start talking about how to fix this mess.

There are two elements that need to be addressed. The first is tariffs to recreate the internal market, industries and jobs we have lost or will be losing. While in line with progressive thinking, these policies predated the progressive movement but crossed party lines and classes because they benefited everyone. It was and is basic nation-building. The Progressive Movement was a "middle-class" approach to curbing the economic power concentrated in a few major business corporations by breaking them up through antitrust action and regulating them so that their business practices did not threaten the health and safety of the general public or the people who worked for these businesses.

To fix the coming economic mess, we need to control our own economy. This means dumping the WTO, along with those NAFTA-type trade agreements, and imposing tariffs. This also means antitrust legislation to decentralize the economy and preventing the concentration of economic power in the hands a the few. It also means regulating business interests to protect the health and safety of Americans as citizens and workers. We also need a "New Deal" approach to a stimulus package that includes, repairing our damaged infrastructure. It's about jobs, the economy and the survival of this nation.

Pervis J. Casey

Riverside, CA

The stimulus package is a band-aid on a gaping wound. Much stronger medicine is needed. Our government needs to re-assume the responsibility for regulating the market so that it functions more effectively and serves the common good. Any discussion of economics, especially in The Nation, should begin there.

Dan Alamia

St. Louis, MO