Sure, the Federal Reserve Bank has added trillions of dollars to its balance sheet to backstop financial institutions that made insane leverage of their money, bad loans to uninformed and sorely under-qualified consumers as well as terrible use of unregulated financial instruments with the unrealistic expectation that housing prices will always rise.

Yeah, President Obama signed a nearly $800 billion stimulus package last week that critics say is just an omnibus spending bill for years' worth of pet Democratic projects. The Obama administration says that the legislation and money will save about four million jobs, depending on the day of the week. Oh, and lest we forget the $700 billion in TARP money that has been used to this point to make sure every American has their fair share of a dumb investment in failing banks.

In other words, the government’s attempts to stimulate the economy have not worked just yet although every American with a stock portfolio and a mortgage has his or her fingers and toes crossed. The Fed may have prevented a speedier decline, or a total meltdown, but things have not gotten much better.

That all changed on Wednesday when Tiger Woods stepped on the first tee at Dove Mountain Golf Club just north of Tucson, making his return to competitive golf at the Accenture Match Play Championship. It has only been eight months since his surreal, one-legged victory in the United States Open, but the golf world likely measured the time in dog years.

Now he’s back after surgically rebuilding his left knee. The PGA Tour is applauding wildly. Those fortunate tournament sponsors where Woods makes his highly selective appearances have heaved heavy sighs of relief. The Golf Channel was sent into an apoplectic promo tizzy simply when Woods announced his return.

Or didn’t you notice the little box in the upper right hand corner, counting down the minutes until Tiger stuck his first peg in the ground? It is golf’s fervent hope that Tiger Woods will single-handedly stimulate the American economy. And the possibility exists.

Don’t believe me? Consider the impact Woods has on the economy. It just might be larger than the GNP of Tanzania.

He is the most recognizable athlete in the world.  There is a reason that Nike pays him so much money each year to play their clubs, balls, and wear their apparel.  People buy Nike stuff to be like Tiger.

Tiger is sponsored by Gatorade, which is running a campaign to try to re-brand itself as just the letter G. (Somehow they missed a natural: Tigerade, complete with stripes on the bottle.) It is going to spend money on promotional materials trying to get people to remember that Tiger had his own Gatorade flavors and is still a extremely proud drinker of Gatorade.

Buick got rid of Tiger because it had to under federal pressure. But AT&T picked up that sponsorship ball and is running with it. It’s not enough that it has exclusive rights to the iPhone. Now it may have exclusive rights to the greatest athlete in the world. And that’s big news in the world of wireless. “The network’’ for Verizon and walkie-talkies for Sprint/Nextel might not cut it any more. That, or they’ll be foraging for table scraps.

Golf ratings are totally in the toilet without Woods, usually down between a quarter and a half of the ratings when Woods is in the field. The downturn has forced NBC and CBS to make cut backs in their golf budgets and it has been noticeable in their telecasts. That was terribly obvious at Pebble Beach and the Bob Hope, which use more than one course in the events.

But here comes Tiger to the rescue. His presence means more people will be watching golf on TV. It means more companies will buy ad time for the telecasts and pay more to do so. Hopefully it will also mean that we all stop seeing commercials for erectile dysfunction and bladder problems as a younger audience is drawn to the tube. Who needs low-dose 36-hour Cialis and -- if you listen closely to all the disclaimers -- why in the world would anyone want to have that kind of ticking time bomb in their loins?

People will go to PGA Tour events in which Woods play in droves. (New Orleans can only wish he would stop here just once.) This knee injury was the sobering news that Woods will one day stop playing golf. And, if you believe what Woods has said in the past, there's a fat chance that he'll be making appearances at your local Champions Tour stop. He will have billions of dollars to spend, a Foundation to run, and probably golf courses to build in the next great city to appear out of nowhere (Dubai).

I don't know if you can put an accurate price tag on the economic impact Woods has. If truth be told, it probably doesn't measure even close to the trillions that we have already invested, either knowingly or unwillingly. Still, this is a stimulus package we can count on to work.