Incredible diary, Techno. I believe it can be done, technically. And since, as you point out, the key concept that will be the do-or-die element is likely it's plausibility as economic stimulation in a very, very rough time, these guys will likely either BE the gatekeepers, or will have major influence over policy.

These guys are Obama's economics team.

Austin Goolsbee
Things he's written
This guy scares me. Here's just one example why:
"The benefeits of Bozo:Proof that TV doesn't hurt kids,
not because I disagree with him, as we all know I do, but because the article is intellectually and technically dishonest. It edits the facts to support the conclusions--and we sure have had our share of that lately. I am at a loss as to why anyone with  his CV would write such a clumsy puff job.

Jeffry Liebman
Pension and poverty specialist at Harvard, done intertesting research on EITC-(earned income tax credit)-good program that actually appears to help lower income families a good deal- detested therefore by the current administration;

David Cutler
Dean of social sciences at Harvard.
Things he's written
Actually, he sounds very interesting to me. Though I have not read a thing he's written, I will.

Jason Furman, --a Brookings wonk who thinks Walmart and similar business models are God's gift to the American consumer. Gulp. Veteran of the Clinton white house, and  a man who seems to support the band-aid approach to solving the arterial bleeding of the American medical system. Please! Not again!

A very mixed bag- two and two, I think, but a young one. So there's hope that they can learn. Or, in the case of Keynes, re-learn.  

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.