>At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the
>rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.
>
>No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole
>town is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more
>optimism.
>
>And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a Stimulus package works.

Nope, that's what we had ages ago and was called "multilateral compensation". First it was done manually, a few entities engaged in mutual debt would report, voluntarily, their debts to the state agency, which would then form a circle of them, and the one which actually had some money would pay to the next... until after 30 minutes they'd leave with less debt and the same balance each had before. It would offset future interest, and the cost of litigation or repossession (which rarely happened).

Later, there was even some code running at the gov't accounting level, where you (the company, not person) would report your debts (both ways - what you owe and what you're owed), and they'd run a batch cancellation and you'd end up with the same balance but in just a few pieces. The trouble is that the ones you'd be left with were the uncollectables, i.e. those which wouldn't pay anyway, because those were near broke, while the ones which were likely to pay were consumed in the process. Which is how it would happen anyway, but at least it saved the effort and time of trying to collect, or explaining to those you owe that you'll pay as soon as the others do.

IOW, I heard this joke in 1991.

The stimulus package may work in a similar manner, only the tourist wouldn't actually have any money, he'd have a concealed printer, issue the $100 from it and then leave with $110 in the end.