"A More Effective Stimulus Package: Job Creation"

Me, on Marketplace, talking about employment. The commentary discusses how and why the recovery of employment has been sluggish following the last two recessions, and criticizes policymakers for not anticipating the slow response of employment when putting the stimulus package into place. That is, policymakers are criticized for not implementing policies that are known to increase employment. Here's the concluding paragraph:

Marketplace: ...Have policymakers reacted properly? The Fed has responded aggressively and creatively and that should help. But fiscal policy - the tax rebates the government sent out- was inadequate. Fiscal policymakers should have recognized that employment has tended to recover sluggishly in recent recessions and implemented policies that are known to create jobs. But they didn’t, and it’s too bad that one policy error, the failure of regulators to prevent the problems in the first place will be compounded be another, the failure of fiscal policy to come to the aid of unemployed workers.

[Update: Paul Krugman talks about the slow recovery of employment over the last two recessions here.]