Five Reasons for Economic Optimism

Maybe you have one to spare? I also have to admit that as I look back at the first four reasons, they're all exercises in either a) finding silver linings in really bad news or b) wishful thinking that has yet to be backed up with hard evidence. All the actual economic news at the moment is negative, there's no clear path out of the recession in sight, and optimists have been made to look like idiots for two years running. (Happily, I was pessimistic for most of 2007 and 2008--maybe because economics columnists weren't as popular back then.) It is, of course, exactly when the news is most discouraging and sentiment most gloomy that recoveries begin. But there's no way of knowing until after the fact when that moment of greatest pessimism was reached.

To read Justin Fox's daily take on business and the economy, go to time.com/curiouscapitalist