Any three-year-old economic recovery is vulnerable to a host of debilitating troubles. Growth has been going on for so long that an unexpected development like poor Christmas sales or a falloff in auto production could tip the economy into recession. After good growth of 3.4% in 1983 and 6.6% in 1984, the U.S. economy in 1985 expanded just 2.4%. Nonetheless TIME's Board of Economists offers an optimistic forecast for American business, predicting steady if unspectacular growth in the coming year. Board members declared that the economy will move forward and avoid a recession in 1986.
The expansion showed some signs of...