In ‘Juggernaut’, I explain what can be called the ‘effective demand problem’. This is the Keynesian notion that a complex economy breaks down in times of high unemployment because the participants in trade no longer have an income to pay for the goods they demand. They lack ‘effective demand’, or demand that is accompanied by enough money to pay for the goods and services they want. Without the ability to pay for those goods and services, they do without, and the companies selling the goods and services take cuts in revenue. As they reduce production, they must reduce the workforce more, and the whole process continues as in a downward spiral.

The answer that Keynes and his ‘ism’ came up with was to introduce a high circulation of currency through government spending. The more government spent, the more money would become available and allow for higher effective demand. The point was to create a permanent boom and eliminate the risk of economic retraction. This is the basis for the recent economic stimulus as it has been for all such state endeavors.

But, as we all know, money can be spent on productive ends and unproductive ones. As state governments have instituted the Keynesian policy of high government expenditures for the sake of increasing circulation, we have seen an increase in the latter. Governments see spending money on neon sign museums and phantom Medicare patients as equally beneficial as spending money on roads and real Medicare patients because the money gets circulated either way.

Recently, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has compiled a list of the most ridiculous examples of this kind of government expenditure. They’re not necessarily earmarks, and can’t quite be called fraudulent, but they must be seen for what they are: wasteful. I know of at least one taxpayer who would rather see his money spent in a more productive way.

* The city of Las Vegas has received a $5.2 million federal grant to build the Neon Boneyard Park and Museum, including $1.8 million in 2010. For over the last decade, Museum supporters have gathered and displayed over 150 old Las Vegas neon signs, such as the Golden Nugget and Silver Slipper casinos.

* The National Science Foundation provided more than to $200,000 to study of why political candidates make vague statements.

* The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spends $175 million every year to maintain hundreds of buildings it does not use, including a pink, octagonal monkey house in Dayton, Ohio.

* Medicare paid out over $35 million to a vast network of 118 “phantom” medical clinics, allegedly established by members of a criminal gang to submit phony reimbursement claims.

* The Government Printing Office (GPO) is using a “video game space mouse” (and nearly $60,000 in taxpayer funds) to teach children the history of printing.

* In July, nearly half a million taxpayer dollars went to the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where wine tasting and castle tours were among the events planned for the conference participants.

* The Internal Revenue Service paid out $112 million in undeserved tax refunds to prisoners who filed fraudulent returns, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

* The National Science Foundation directed nearly a quarter million dollars to a Stanford University professor’s study of how Americans use the Internet to find love.

* The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) took the term “cold case” to a new level in 2010. The agency spent over $20,000 in taxpayer money “to unravel the anonymity of a 2,500-year-old mummy.”

* The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent nearly $442,340 to study the number of male prostitutes in Vietnam and their social setting.

* This year, taxpayers forked over $60,000 for the “first-of-its kind” promotion of the Vidalia onion in conjunction with the movie, Shrek Forever After. ”

* The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded over $600,000 to the Minnesota Zoo to create a wolf “avatar” video game called “WolfQuest.”

* A $700,000 federal grant paid for researchers to examine “greenhouse gas emission from organic dairies, which are cause by cow burps, among other things.”

You can read Wastebook 2010 in its entirety here.