Writing in The New Yorker, Steve Coll meditates on the significance of the reactions certain political élites who are now lining up in favor using the government to better the economy. The country is fortunate in one respect: the sudden buckling of financial safeguards has put just about everyone in touch with his inner New Dealer. Even Alan Greenspan recently confessed to Congress a crisis of faith in self-regulation. Meanwhile, former free-market true believers in the Bush Administration have tossed out money from the public vault like looters... [...] Embedded in this festival of emergency measures, however, is an important and possibly durable ideological shift. Last week, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, Martin Feldstein, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan Administration, and, more recently, an adviser to John McCain, endorsed large-scale spending on public works as a way to stimulate economic recovery....The essay's appearance indicated that a broad coalition is emerging, where none existed a year ago, in favor of New Deal-style expenditures on roads, bridges, broadband lines, alternative energy, and the like, to support economic recovery and future growth. If Coll's observation proves durable, then there will be greater political elbowroom -- to a greater or lesser extent depending on the outcome of today's contests, but room nonetheless -- to strengthen public investments. If you had your say, what would you move to the top of the agenda? Email us at , and let us know.