The housing market has turned, Europe's crisis is apparently in remission and the Federal Reserve has pressed its monetary accelerator to the floor. Yet as 2012 draws to a close, America's economy is still growing at an annualised rate of only around 1%. That figure has been depressed by fears of the self-inflicted "fiscal cliff": a package of tax increases and spending cuts, worth 5% of gdp in a full year, that is set to kick in on January 2nd. That constraint may also be finally lifting. After six weeks of shadowboxing, Barack Obama and John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Represen-atives, are moving towards a long-term deficit deal to avoid the cliff.
展开▼
