Nowadays there is no shortage of pundits, economic or otherwise, warning of impending disaster. If right, they are hailed as seers; if wrong, chances are that no one will remember. So here's a forecast: There will be no shortage of predictions that 2012 is shaping up as a disastrous year.
My view is different: 2012 will not be a year of crisis, but nor will it bring an end to our current economic troubles. Rather, it will be a year of muddling through.
Many people think that 2012 will be the make-or-break year for Europe — either a quantum leap in European integration, with the creation of a fiscal union and the issuance of Eurobonds, or the eurozone's disintegration, igniting the mother of all financial crises.