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They can create jobs easily enough, it's a question of if the capital expended to create these jobs could have been more productive if left in the market. The answer is almost inevitably yes.

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I remember thinking that my economics professor was a tool for repeatedly telling us that ANY intervention or favoritism by government results in decreased efficiency for an economy as a whole. Now, I'm not so sure. I suppose I am getting old.

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I basically agree with the above with a few exceptions. I think expenditures on setting up a basically orderly society (court system, law enforcement, patent office, etc) creates a basic framework in which business can thrive.

Businesses do better in a minimal government setting than in anarchy.

Also spending on infrastructure: roads, water, sewage, power, etc. (Not that the construction of these things cannot be contracted to a private party.) Again, allows commerce to take place in a more efficient manner.

Lastly, education. Public education is a boon to the economy as screwed up as it is.

But those aren't what most politicians mean by "creating jobs."

And most jobs "created" at the state and local level are really just jobs swiped from another state or locality. But in the case of Louisiana getting those jobs, screw those other states!