Economists and other observers of the U.S. economy seem to have concluded that the modest recovery we experienced this year (coming off the ’08-’09 recession) will continue in 2011, although possibly at an even slower pace. Pardon me if I’m not all atwitter at this news. 
 
Then again, even this modest progress could go awry if something goes wrong: e.g., another Middle East blowup, defaults and/or bailouts among the ‘PIGS’ (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain), the Federal Reserve backing off of its “QE2” stimulus plan (or going ahead with the purchase of $600 billion in U.S. Treasury ...