Use the 3 T's of fiscal policy to explain the challenges of using discretionary fiscal policy to counter a recession: To be MOST effective, FP must be timely, targeted, and temporary. Timely: challenging for policymakers Lags in data that make it difficult to assess the severity of the recession as it occurs Canadian parliament may hold off on FP until seeing how the economy responds first to changes in MP Targeted: Challenging to identify groups most negatively impacted and those in need who are likely to spend, rather the save the money Temporary: Changes move through study, proposal, and approval stages in Canadian Parliament before finally being implemented After implementation, lag may occur before policy impacts the economy in a meaningful way - risk of a policy exacerbating not countering the business cycle explain better