Throwing money at banks for back rubs and bonuses is one approach to helping the economy, but Congress is also considering an increase in infrastructure investment, and those plans could involve broadband. That's a huge step for a country that currently doesn't even have a broadband deployment policy. While there's strong opposition to the idea of infrastructure investment as economic salve, the Los Angeles Times claims some economists and policymakers are warming to the idea:The Times doesn't mention broadband in their analysis of the "trickle up" approach to economic salvation, but it's supposedly on the table. While ISPs won't want tougher regulation and many "free marketeers" will hate the idea of government involvement, the unions (and the folks at Speed Matters) would surely welcome the work. As long as we're flinging taxpayer money about, consumers probably wouldn't mind either.

Though an unfair apple to orange comparison, the $700 billion bailout could have delivered fiber to the home to every single American, with enough money left over to outfit half of all homes for solar electricity. While we're making unreasonable comparisons, the $2 trillion in total emergency loans Bloomerg is suing for transparency over probably could have deliverd FTTCT (fiber to the cerebral cortex) to everyone else in North America as well.

Of course whether those investments would actually help the economy depends on which financially conflicted partisan think tank employee you ask. The liberal Economic Policy Institute tells the Times that $75 billion in infrastructure spending creates 1 million jobs. The conservative American Enterprise Institute tells the Times that infrastructure investment takes too long and that potential economic gains are overstated.