When the Nobel-prize winning economist and a New York Times columnist Paul Krugman opines people listen. And today he is talking about a second stimulus. Yes, you’ve read it here first. Krugman’s main point is that the economy has worsened since the stimulus legislation was passed by Congress. Therefore, he concludes the stimulus has failed to deliver. Moreover, Krugman laments that 3.5 million jobs projected to be created by stimulus spending through 2010 will be too-little-too-late, since the net job-loss in the U.S. economy thus far is already greater than that, standing at 4.4 million. Correct us if we are wrong, but the stimulus hasn’t had a chance to work, yet. The money is just now reaching the states. Besides, the stimulus was meant to stimulate the U.S. economy, not to become the U.S. economy. Could we really expect government funds to pick up ALL of the slack in the U.S. employment market? Isn’t that the task for the private U.S. economy? The U.S. economic system has long been praised, even if of late, it has come under a lot of criticism. Warren Buffet just referred to the U.S. economy as the “greatest economic machine ever created,” despite his investment empire sustaining losses of over 60 percent since last year. If you look at the manufacturing sector job losses the troubles began there long before the jobs started to disappear in the other sectors of the economy. Industrial production in the U.S. has been falling every year for the last 8 years, since 2001. Policy makers (and economists) need to think about long-term strategies to keep the U.S. economy working and Americans employed. If that’s our goal we need to revise our trade policies and create a long-term sustainable industrial policy for the U.S., in order to keep Americans across the societal spectrum employed in good-paying jobs. Much confusion remains at the state level about the intent of the stimulus. When the stimulus was debated in Washington, it was all about priorities: what should we spend the money on to give the U.S. economy the biggest jolt. The lawmakers didn’t seem to anticipate that one of the outcomes could be stimulus funds being stashed away by the states, or being spent on propping up state government operations, rather than infusing the funds into projects that create jobs. Meanwhile, President Obama will urge his colleagues during the G-20 meeting in London next month to dedicate more funds to stimulating their economies. Undoubtedly, the President will face resistance from his European counterparts, who want to put the focus of the joint economic efforts on creating a global regulatory mechanism for financial institutions instead.