text:  While economists agree rate cuts won't instantly juice an economy, there's really no consensus on just how long that lag is. Sarah House is an economist at Wells Fargo. It's hard to say because a lot of times when the Fed is cutting rates, it's because the economy is already in a downturn. And so in some ways, it's hard to really separate how much the rate cuts are doing when you already have a lot of negative forces happening.