With economists increasingly leery a recession is on the horizon, DC is beginning to talk "stimulus" language to give the economy a little pre-emptive boost. Not all economists and policy advisors agree if/when a stimulus package would be necessary and there are also different schools of thought on what are the best ways to inject energy back into the US economy.

Congress and the president may be proposing different stimulus packages in January and February. For the time being, here are a couple of ways they may go:

Supply Side

Some Republicans think a sure bet is to give businesses a leg up by cutting down corporate taxes - either whole sale or targetted toward investment.

Demand Side

Both parties are talking about tax cuts - or refunds - to consumers (like you and me), but they don't necessarily share views on how or who to give those cuts to.

Public-works Side

A third way to go is to invest a lot of cash into building infrastructure - roads, etc. - which has the double advantage of creating jobs in the short term and investing in future business (which benefits from a strong infrastructure)