It Finally Happened!

"Many analysts expect the economy returned to growth in the July-September quarter, expanding at a pace of 3.3 percent. If they are right, it would end the streak of four straight quarters of contraction, the first time that's happened on records dating to 1947." - Associated Press

Job losses are still mounting, but that is to be expected because jobs have been, and will always remain, a lagging indicator (businesses don't want to hire until they are certain everything has stabilized).  A year from now, short of some unforeseen disaster, debt levels should be much lower, real estate prices much firmer, and investors much calmer.  Even though most of the gain was from the Cash for Clunkers program (the estimate is that without it, growth would have been an anemic 0.8% or less), the fact that the economy still would have grown, even in tiny terms, is a huge improvement.