First, an excellent posting! It validates my analysis of urban mass transit rail in the U.S. costing $3.4 trillion just to build, never mind the rolling stock. Clearly, someone talking billions at this point is a sure sign that they are of the old paradigm of finance-dominated "free market" neo-liberalism - the Anglo disease.

And that's the problem with economic advisers - the old paradigm of finance-dominated "free market" neo-liberalism is so damn dominant now. Even Thomas Palley (who so far as I know was not close to any of the primary election contenders), imho, has stumbled badly in his policy prescriptions the past few months. It is extremely disheartening. In a way, the problem is more cultural than anything else. We have to attack the Anglo disease every opportunity we get. I think one more big financial shock like Bare Sterns, and the Big Crack will begin.  

Btw, anyone interested in how the U.S. bubble economy has managed to keep going since March would do well to read Doug Noland's latest "CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The cost of credit seizure" at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JF10Dj02.html

With Wall Street finance having lost its perceived "moneyness", the ongoing US credit expansion will only be sustained by rampant growth of instruments that retain the perception of safety and liquidity - namely, Treasuries, agency debt and MBS, bank liabilities and money fund "deposits". And, at least for the first quarter, double-digit growth virtually across all these key sectors generated the necessary SAAR $2.036 trillion of non-financial credit and SAAR $3.115 trillion of total system credit to prop up an acutely vulnerable economic bubble. But at what cost? And for how long does today's functional "money" - being inflated at double-digit rates through the intermediation of risky credits - retain its "moneyness"?