Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe thinks the glass is half full but is clearly frustrated that the job of topping it up is continually being left to the central bank.
In the first of his routine testimonies to parliament as governor, Dr Lowe said all his predecessor Glenn Stevens left in his office was a coffee mug.
"And the coffee mug was emblazoned with 'half full'," he said.
But keeping the economy that way has largely been left to the RBA, as it has been for most central banks since soon after the global financial crisis in 2008.
Dr Lowe said the problem afflicting developed economies is a deficiency in aggregate demand - not enough spending - in the global economy.
That's why major economies have pushed their benchmark interest rates to near zero, or even less.
He said it was 'extremely unlikely' the RBA will run out of scope to lower interest rates, given the "reasonable" outlook for the economy.
But if things got that bad, cutting rates again would not be Dr Lowe's preferred option as continual lowering is seen as less effective than it had been in the past.
"There are better ways to stimulate the economy than to set the interest rate at zero, or below zero," he said.
Another option is to restructure economies to foster an environment where businesses feel more comfortable about investing.
But the reason monetary policy isn't working globally is that no one wants to take advantage of low interest rates to increase their spending, Dr Lowe said.
"So some entity could do that - governments are one entity but governments typically don't want to do that," he said.
Dr Lowe is not ready to throw in the towel though.
"One thing that I find attractive is the idea that the government use either its balance sheet or its planning capacity to do infrastructure spending."
He returned to this theme several times during his testimony.
And it's by no means the first time an RBA governor has brought it up: Glenn Stevens said much the same in his final major public outing as governor in August.
Nor is the borrowing-to-build theme confined to the RBA.
Earlier on Thursday the OECD released its interim economic report and reiterated its view that countries with the capacity should use their borrowing power to help growth.
"On the fiscal front, low interest rates offer governments additional fiscal space for investing in human capital and physical infrastructure to promote short-term demand, long-term output and inclusiveness," the OECD said.
And it's a talking point at gatherings of central bankers, according to Dr Lowe.
"The central banking community, when we get together in Basel, we often lament that not enough is being done on these other two areas, either the G20 growth agenda and government facilitating infrastructure spending.
"And a point that gets made at almost every international meeting that I go to is we do have options here and too much globally has been relied on the monetary option."
