"Jobs programs" never create new wealth. They only redirect wealth and resources from other sectors of the economy. The cost to those other sectors is often very high.
With a sound money, none of these distortions would have been possible: the limitations of the currency itself would have forced an unwinding of excessive risk far before it could become a clash between major hedge funds and Reddit trolls.
Surprise! An audit of Pennsylvania's covid lockdowns reveals the process lacked any legal consistency or transparency. Yet Pennsylvania's health bureaucrats have used these arbitrary rules to crush the state's entrepreneurs.
Americans have benefited mightily by holding and trading with the world’s reserve currency, though most people haven’t given it a thought. No one remembers when the pound sterling held this distinction a hundred years ago.
In order to prevent the economy sinking into a lasting state of stagnation, what is required is to reduce both government spending and government regulation, and to rein in the Fed.
Economic freedom isn't a modern invention, and ancient Greece can provide some useful examples that show how markets are the engine of prosperity and human flourishing.