What is needed is concerted effort to sever the hands of dying financial institutions that are currently around the neck of the entire US society before that sector drags us all into an early grave. It is NOT a question of spending or guarantees per se, but rather a question of the long term effectiveness of that spending and those guarantees and the constraints they place on future policy. See the second link in my comment down thread. It is to a paper by Simon Johnson showing the consequences of such decisions. See also the post based on Edward Harrison below. We can say "Fuck inflation", but we had better be prepared to be well and truly fucked by inflation if we are unprepared when recovery is underway. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
The problem is wealth concentration. What the US has now is a ghost economy, populated entirely by chimeras, supported by a huge pile of government-backed 'Would I lie to you?'
But there's no foundation. So the real economy will remain in depression while the ghost economy resumes modest growth - for a while, until the 'Would I lie to you?' runs out.
