Looking forward: UPFRONT.

• Position: Services of government agencies

Maybe it's because, as I write this, it's only six days until Christmas or, more likely, I'm still basking in the afterglow of yesterday's post-taper stock-market rally, which sent the Dow soaring nearly 300 points, but I'm feeling good about business next year--or this year, as it'll likely be by the time you read this. That's because I've come to the conclusion that, no matter how hard they try, politicians can no longer stop the economy from improving.

Oh, they've given it their best shot, the clowns in Congress who have done little of consequence except partially shut down the federal government, the Obama administration with its inept launch of the Affordable Care Act and the three-ring circus in Raleigh to repair all that's purportedly "broken" in state government. To even imagine such scenarios as we've seen this last year, you'd have to be smoking something far stronger than what they've legalized in Colorado.

I'm no economist and needn't be to know the 2007-09 recession was no normal downturn, the kind we've traditionally quickly bounced back from. The Great Recession was caused by a financial crisis, the worst one--in fact, the only one--this country has experienced since the Great Depression. It took a good decade and a bad world war to dig out from those depths. But there's a lot of data out there that shows we're poised to make real headway in the coming year. The economy is on the mend because--to trot out another cliche--time heals all wounds.

Now that's not what...