If you were president, what would you do about the economy?

• Position: Financial Executive: One Minute Survey Results

If you feel that reducing the deficit is more important than stimulating the economy, you've got lots of company, at least among Financial Executive readers. Eighty-four percent of the readers who responded to the One-Minute Survey in our September/October issue say they would hold out for reducing the deficit rather than instituting new spending programs. And they would do it, first, by reducing entitlements (64 percent); second, by instituting across-the-board reductions in the staffs of federal agencies (60 percent); third, by reducing foreign aid (44 percent). The least popular way to reduce the federal deficit is to increase taxes, allocating a specific amount to deficit reduction (28 percent).

But if they were to stimulate the economy, the majority (57 percent) would use the investment tax credit; 50 percent would reduce the capital gains tax rate. Twenty-two percent say they would give money to state and local governments to invest in infrastructure, and 17 percent say they would lower the personal income tax rate.

Among other solutions to the burgeoning deficit supported by our readers is the need for government to clean up its act. Says one respondent: "Government must get itself under control. It is light-years behind private industry (including the service sector) in addressing productivity." Cutting defense spending, increasing the tax on gasoline, and giving the President the line-item veto were also frequently mentioned as solutions to the problem.

Readers had a number of other suggestions on how to reduce government spending...