Those of you that have eyed through Ludlum’s Bourne rather than opting for the big screen option will be well familiar with the phrase “rest is a weapon”. In the books Robert Ludlum has Jason Bourne re-iterate the importance of rest time and time again. But we all know how important it is to pace our efforts, even if we are not battling global corporate and political corruption.

Personally, I was reminded of it today on the cross trainer in my local gym. It was Monday morning and I had too much Pouilly Fumé during the weekend. After 20 minutes I couldn’t keep up my usual pace and had to slow down for a few minutes. The hormonally controlled network connecting my muscles to my cardiovascular system managed this brief slowdown seamlessly and my overall performance was only mildly affected.

Our economy is interconnected by a complicated network system, just like our body. The economic system is of course not hormonal, but more or less as fast and responsive as if it were. When the economy is running at too high a pace, networked messengers will kick in to slow it down.

If we allow the pacing to take place, it might not affect the overall performance other than mildly. However, if we inject hormones, i.e. force tax payers to keep the pace (known as an increase in public spending), we run the risk of damaging parts of the system.

The balance is delicate. Sometimes injection of stimulants can boost short term performance without lasting negative effects, other times not.

As errors can be made, we need to consider how we exercise caution. Perhaps this is a question to ask: Do we want to hit a slowdown with steroids, or do we want to make sure that we preserve a long term healthy system?