And changes in the Fed funds rate had an inverse effect on the economy, with a lag, of course.
Part of the problem is that higher interest rates filter through the economy with a lag of many months.
Yes, suspects the professor: "Some evidence suggests that Europe is about to follow the American pattern with a lag of a few decades.
Could AstraZeneca, where the oncology portfolio is also the big swing factor in assessing value, be BMS with a lag of a year or two?
However it does seem that there is a link between high commodity prices and deforestation, with a lag of about a year (see chart).
One is: control the rate of growth of the money supply and thus, with a lag of two years or so, bear down on inflation.
With a lag of two to five months between a nation's pledge of food and its delivery -- over terrible roads and through inadequate ports -- the concern is keeping what aid officials call the "food pipeline" full.
"There's a realization that the credit crunch has hit Europe with a lag of one year, and that's turning into a serious constraint on the economy for the next six months," he said.
Liam Bailey, head of residential research for the Knight Frank real estate agency, said: "In normal times, the prime country house market would follow the growth cycle set by the central London market, with a lag of around 18 months.
The hypothesis would coincide, finally, with observations that the social development of children with ADHD progresses at the same rate as that of their peers but with a lag of two to three years.
And if recession, or something close to it, is imminent, then by the usual reckoning, that monetary policy works only with a lag of 18 months or more, it is too late to do anything about it.
