Our Economic Times: Optimism for 2013?

This column was published in Savannah Morning News.

With recent fiscal calamities close in the nation’s rearview and others approaching fast, the U.S. finds itself inside the eye of a self-generated budgetary tornado. What’s more, congressional disagreement has done nothing but provide unnecessary headwinds to short-run economic growth. At the eleventh hour, Congress addressed the tax increases and sequestration, narrowly averting the so-called fiscal cliff. Income and capital gains taxes on the top earners increased and automatic cuts to defense and discretionary federal programs were delayed until March 1...