NPR This is the indicator from planet money. I'm Darien Woods and I'm Whelan

Wong. When there's a recession the usual tendency for policy makers is to

scramble. There's a flurry of tax cuts or emergency aid for families and

businesses. These moves to stabilize the economy often depend on the whims of

politicians. There is debate, there's sometimes dead luck, in the

meantime people are hurting. Now last week's healthy jobs numbers along with

other positive economic data indicate we've avoided a recession at least for now but

we know economies move in cycles and there will be another downturn at some point.

So for some economists now is a good moment to consider if there is a better way to combat the next recession,

some kind of way to provide relief without all the scrambling.

Today on the show, we talked to an economist about his proposal for helping households

through economic slumps.

It involves the government automatically sending people cash, potentially400 billion of it.

You're going to need a bigger mailbox.

Yeah, we'll go shopping after the break. This message comes from NPR sponsor SAP Concur.

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