While the bitter reckoning of the winter months has recently displayed a scattering of warm spots indicating a better spring ahead, mid-January economic improvements also are peeking through the heavy clouds overhanging the late 2012 economy.
Despite the double whammy of the year-end fiscal cliff and the threatening debt-ceiling crisis this month, the world-leading U.S. economy is straining at government shackles the way Gulliver was held down by the vast array of Lilliputians.