"We have a lot of latent capacity that is idle right now," he said."But it's not an overnight thing.

A discount item may be half off, but if it ends up among the unused gadgets in your kitchen cabinet;that's still money you spent on clutter instead of basic necessities.

These unenterprising people have money lying idle in a bank.

This will help foreign companies and the workers they have idled.

But the cost of a prolonged slump, in terms of idle resources, lost income, decaying skills and an erosion in the trust that keeps civil society going, would be far higher.