Question: Referring to the 2001 recession, an editorial in The Economist titled "Restoring the fiscal option" (January 17, 2002) argued that "In the United States, 9 months after the recession began, Republicans and Democrats are quarrelling over which ill-conceived measures to include in their stimulus package-as if to prove right those who say that fiscal expansion always come too late to be any use." Is that right? Is fiscal policy often too late to be helpful?