The American economy over the past year was a bit like General Motors – fragile at the start of the year but slowly gaining strength.

By the end of the year we were all pleased at the signs of recovery, but couldn't quite be sure it was for real.

I feel the same about 2011.

Keep your fingers crossed for GM and Uncle Sam.

It was a difficult year, 2009 – a year that will go down in U.S. economic history as one of the toughest. The economy came perilously close to seizing up in a way that would have made the Great Depression look like primary school. Heroic interventions by the Fed under Ben Bernanke and first Henry Paulson and then Tim Geithner at Treasury literally saved our economy. The current high unemployment rate is a concern, of course, but the alternative was catastrophic.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness" seems a good way to sum up 2008. Orphan Annie's friend Tessie got it right, and she and Tom Wolfe were about the only people so to do. Wolfe, you may remember, was found roaming the Stock Exchange floor on the day in the summer of '06 when Blackstone, the giant of Private Equity went public. When asked to comment Mr. Wolfe said: "We may be witnessing the end of capitalism as we know it". The Dow was then at 13,337. It is now at 8,894, most of the decline coming since October. The economy, which looked resilient almost to October, faltered badly in the fourth quarter. The Fed injected billions in liquidity to stabilize the financial system. Cassandras appeared everywhere. For a few moments it seemed the sky was falling.

2007 has not been a particularly memorable year, except perhaps if you are a Red Sox fan or the holder of a zero-down ARM. The economy has managed a respectable showing in the face of a major melt-down in the sub-prime mortgage market, $100 dollar a barrel crude oil prices, and a precipitous decline in the dollar. The American economy is a pretty miraculous thing. It keeps on generating new jobs, in spite of market forces that would decimate most other economies in the world.

2006 will go down as a good year for business, the stock market, private equity firms, youTube, Bordeaux wine futures, Exxon-Mobil, and, improbably, the Saint Louis Cardinals. Faring not so well would be George W. Bush, the Amaranth Group of Hedge Funds, and the Boston Red Sox.