But they're the sort of early-recovery winners that it often pays to get into too soon rather than too late, Carnahan says.

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"Indeed rather than being too late, now is actually a necessary time to act, before even larger numbers begin to anchor and before anchoring takes firm root globally, " he said.

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"Within five years a slew of new diagnostic tests will allow us to detect disease early, when it can be treated, rather than when it is too late, " says Patrick Plewman, Diadexus' chief executive.

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Rather than doing too little too late, as it has so far, Spain's government should quickly admit the scale of the problem, clean up the banks, preferably by removing bad assets, and shut down, or recapitalise, what is left.

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As a result, tax cuts in response to a slowdown have typically arrived too late, fuelling the next boom rather than cushioning the impact of a recession.

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Bucchere was going far too fast, but he may have run a very late yellow rather than a red, a mistake made worse because of the pedestrians entering the crosswalk very early.

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