Hope for the dollar?

Where is the US economy going in 2011? Do the optimists or the pessimists have the better arguments? Despite a multi-billion dollar fiscal stimulus package, a car scrappage scheme, a tax incentive for first-time home-buyers, ample liquidity pumped into the financial system and near-zero interest rates, for an extended period, the US economy has so far failed to achieve lift-off into a self-sustained recovery. What the various initiatives did achieve was an unwinding of the inventory overhang induced by the recession, and a subsequent inventory rebuild. However, that has almost run its co...