{"id":1893,"date":"2011-12-29T14:20:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T19:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2011-12-29T14:20:15","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T19:20:15","slug":"ezra-klein-how-the-economy-could-come-back-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/12\/29\/ezra-klein-how-the-economy-could-come-back-in-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezra Klein: &#8220;How the economy could come back in 2012&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>This is the 2nd of an indeterminate number of posts with other analysts&#8217; and columnists&#8217; economic predictions for 2012. I posted David Wessel&#8217;s from the WSJ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/12\/29\/wsj-columnist-wessels-economic-forecast-for-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> (it&#8217;s referenced in this post).<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in sober, thoughtful, and comprehensible economic analysis, you should be reading the Washington Post&#8217;s Wonkbook piloted by Ezra Klein.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at Klein&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/ezra-klein\/post\/wonkbook-how-the-economy-could-come-back-in-2012\/2011\/12\/28\/gIQANnVKOP_blog.html?hpid=z2\" target=\"_blank\">How the economy could come back in 2012<\/a>. Klein is certainly more a realist than an optimist, but today&#8217;s short piece focuses on the potential upside to housing after a rather disappointing 2011: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But 2012 is a new year. And, as [Wessel in the WSJ] notes, the early data is encouraging. Unemployment claims are down to their lowest level in more than three years. Housing starts are up. The stock market is bouncing back. Europe&#8217;s latest round of bond sales wasn&#8217;t a complete disaster.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Klein notes, some hedge funds are now betting on a pickup in housing. That pickup is likely to be disappointing to those placing bets on it, but it almost certainly will improve. And that&#8217;s just one reason for Klein&#8217;s cautious optimism (though he doesn&#8217;t say much about other reasons):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nBut just as 2010 and 2011 were worse than forecasters expected, there are plausible scenarios in which 2012 is better than forecasters now expect. Let&#8217;s hope.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"4\" style=\"float: none; margin:4px 0 4px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Another large rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0042810896\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the 2nd of an indeterminate number of posts with other analysts&#8217; and columnists&#8217; economic predictions for 2012. I posted David Wessel&#8217;s from the WSJ here (it&#8217;s referenced in this post). If you&#8217;re interested in sober, thoughtful, and comprehensible&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/12\/29\/ezra-klein-how-the-economy-could-come-back-in-2012\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[25],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}