John Cochrane , professor of finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, has become one of the most outspoken "anti-Keynesians," and is no fan of the Obama Administration's plan for economic recovery. He says fiscal policy can be "good politics," but, ultimately, it doesn't boost the economy. Here' s what he wrote in the conclusion of a recent paper, Fiscal Stimulus, Fiscal Inflation, or Fiscal Fallacies?: My analysis is macroeconomic, and does not imply anything about the specific virtues or faults of the Obama team's spending programs. If it's a good idea to build roads, build roads. (Keep in mind the many roads to nowhere.) If it's a good idea for the government to subsidize green technology investment, do it. (Keep in mind that the internet did not spring from industrial policy to improve the Post Office, the word processor did not come from a public-private consortium to rescue the typewriter industry, and that a huge carbon tax is much more likely to spur useful green ideas, and the only way to spur conservation.) The government should borrow to finance worthy projects, whose rate of return is greater than projects the private sector would undertake with the same money, spreading the taxes that pay for them over many years, after making sure its existing spending meets the same cost-benefit tradeoff. Just don't call it "stimulus," don't claim it will solve our current credit problems, "create jobs" on net, or do anything to help the economy in the short run. Cochrane joined Russell Roberts for an hour on the EconTalk podcast. You can listen to, or download the podcast here .