It's just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets.
The group also wants the seaports to subsidize purchases of new trucks, whether by drivers or the companies.
Provides $250 million to subsidize purchases of electric power by companies that locate or expand in New York, or that pledge not to leave the state.
Instead, it fell 2.1 percent last week, the same week Beijing announced a program of 26.5 billion renminbi, or $4.2 billion, to subsidize purchases of energy-saving household electrical equipment — a drop in China's 50 trillion renminbi economic ocean.
But even in states like Wisconsin, where utilities have subsidized purchases of energy-efficient lighting for more than a decade, cheap incandescent bulbs outsell the newer technology by a four-to-one margin.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in July 2009 that he wanted all new cars sold in his country by 2020 to be electric or hybrid though British automakers retorted that Brown's offer earlier in the year to subsidize purchases of electric vehicles would have little effect on sales.
Specifically, a lump sum tax on the wages of consumers could be used to subsidize purchases of capital goods, through mechanisms such as an investment tax credit, and thus effectively ensure that individual producers are making decisions based on the average product of capital.
But if we're willing to subsidize purchases for those who can't afford to buy insurance, and the insurance industry is willing to end rescission and stop refusing to cover people who are already sick, then this is a good deal both for society and the shareholders of publicly traded health companies.
Krugman's assessment is that the plan amounts to "an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets".
It calls for transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private insurance plans.
