The equivalent stimulus could have been achieved at a much lower budgetary cost, both near and long term, by focusing tax cuts on lower-income households who are more likely to spend their gains.

ECONOMIST: Governments have resumed their profligate habits

It seems certain that the Federal Reserve will continue to accompany fiscal stimulus with the monetary equivalent in the form of near-zero interest rates and further quantitative easing.

ECONOMIST: A bearish perspective on the market in 2011

Her candidacy would have been the equivalent of a comedic stimulus package.

CNN: Paul Ryan: Good for GOP, bad for comedy

"Wales, where NewBuy is not yet available and there is no proposal for an equivalent of FirstBuy, we are not seeing the same stimulus to the new-homes market evident in England, " it added.

BBC: Mortgage market boosted by lending schemes, says Redrow