What is seen and what is unseen for May 18th, 2009

Borrowing from Fredric Bastiat, here is today's edition.

Take a look at this map illustrating where stimulus dollars are planned to go for highway reconstruction and infrastructure. Billions of dollars are allocated in this map, for the purpose of "jumpstarting the economy". Kind of like stimulus checks, only made of asphalt. Stimulus asphalt.

When these projects are completed, this is what you will see. Smooth new highways and bridges, and we'll all thank the government for it. What we will never see, however, is where the billions would have gone otherwise. You'll never see a new first home being bought, the new small business, the new investments in technology and medicine, or any other choice of the marketplace. Maybe those businesses and investments would have failed, but we will never know.