Finally, any program should be explicitly temporary, both to avoid unwanted stimulus beyond the near-term horizon and, importantly, to preclude an increase in the federal government's structural budget deficit. As I have discussed on other occasions, the nation faces daunting long-run budget challenges associated with an aging population, rising health-care costs, and other factors.
A fiscal program that increased the structural budget deficit would only make confronting those challenges more difficult. Thank you. I would be pleased to take your questions. 4  BIS Review 6/2008