Stimulus at Work

"As of July 25, 73,799 taxpayers had incorrectly claimed $504 million in credits in the program for first-time home buyers," the federal inspector general for tax administration found. The New York Times has a report. The program was so successful it has been extended. As Holman Jenkins writes today, "Fewer banks would have inflicted such damage on themselves if not for the government's role, eight ways from Sunday, in encouraging Americans to incur housing debt, with direct subsidies, tax incentives and the use of Fannie and Freddie to channel China's surpluses into a U.S. housing boom."