Economic Good News May Be Transitory

NYT (via nc links):

“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to see a slowdown over the course of next year,” Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told reporters last week. “Not only do we have the European crisis spilling over and hurting U.S. trade and confidence,” he said, but the United States economy also faces “homegrown shocks.”
There are two reasons for the renewed pessimism. First, economists say that temporary trends increased growth in the fourth quarter and may not continue into next year. Second, the economy faces significant headwinds in 2012: some from Europe’s long-lingering sovereign debt crisis, and some from domestic cutbacks beyond the control of President Obama, whose campaign would like to point to a brightening economic picture, not a darkening one. Even the Federal Reserve is predicting that the unemployment rate will remain around 8.6 percent by the time voters go to the polls in November.

The article doesn't even mention the potential of bad news out of China.  I sure hope the economy is recovering, but as is usually the case, I remain skeptical.  I just get the feeling that a Communist Party might not be fully prepared for dealing with a Capitalist eff-up.  Kind of like Homer Simpson saying, "Who knows more about electricity than the Amish?"