[rafaelc]

The way I visualize it is thinking in terms of levers. And there are only two major levers - monetary policy and fiscal policy. Monetary policy is historically the more effective of the two at stimulating the economy. The problem is we have pulled the monetary policy almost all the way down. The only way to pull it further is negative interest rates, which is terrifying in its implications. On the fiscal policy side, pulling that lever costs in the hundreds of billions each time (e.g. TARP was ~$450 billion) and is less effective.