Part 3: If you liked 2011, you’ll probably love 2012

What a dif­fer­ence a week makes. Last week as I described my 2012, eco­nomic out­look I undoubt­edly came off as a pes­simist rather than the “prag­matic opti­mistic” label I attached to myself. In my analy­sis, I indi­cated that other ana­lysts might not be con­sid­er­ing the full range of issues that could keep growth rel­a­tively mod­est through­out the year, includ­ing the influ­ence of the EU sov­er­eign debt cri­sis, the uncer­tainty regard­ing the state of con­sumer finances and the over-estimated strength of labor markets.