Thinking Happy Thoughts

Salmon is worried about Ben Bernanke's economic optimism:

...we seem to have a plan based on hope: hope that the banks will be able to repay their loans rather than see them converted into controlling equity stakes for the government; hope that house prices will stop plunging; hope that employers will start hiring again; hope that America's animal spirits will rally like a beaten-up boxer coming back from a severe beating in a bad Hollywood movie.

James Surowiecki counters.