A three-year thought experiment in programmable fiscal policy, jobs, Treasury demand and digital-payment adoption:
What if stimulus had a wallet, an expiry date and a fiscal ledger?
Fiscal stimulus is normally judged by the amount appropriated. However, digital money raises a different question: could government measure the path from appropriation to spending, jobs, taxes and welfare savings whilst automatically recovering money that is never used? The distinction matters because a headline commitment and the final fiscal cost are not necessarily the same thing; start with a deliberately simplified US example. The US Census Bureau estimates a population of 341.8 million (with 21.1% under 18) implying roughly 269.7 million adults. A $5,000 entitlement for every adult produces a headline program of about $1.35 trillion. However, assume that only 50% successfully open a wallet and only 60% of those wallet holders spend the allocation before a 30-day expiry. Only 30% of eligible adults ulti…
