The Worst Silver Lining Ever

Is the (lame) party almost over for the US economy? Jim Pethokoukis has a definite-maybe on that question:

What could go wrong? Well, a lot. Wall Street certainly has worries aplenty. The advance of the militant group ISIS in Iraq and Syria threatens important oil exports, which could jack up global oil prices. The eurozone economy isn’t growing at all and risks a triple-dip recession with knock-on effects here. Then there’s the Fed. It’s winding down its “quantitative easing” bond-buying program and is expected to begin raising interest rates at some point next year.

Now, none of those things is necessarily an existential threat to the recovery. But with slow-growth expansions — of whatever age — you just never know what’s going to screw them up. They’re just really fragile.

The good news is that this weak recovery doesn’t leave us all that far to fall.

The bad news is that the good news is a lie.