Let's not get cocky
Of course there are still plenty of things to fret about. The now largely taxpayer-owned banks - RBS and Lloyds TSB - continue to lose money hand over fist, the UK house price rally has stalled (not necessarily a bad thing) and the pound continues to weaken (again, could be positive), as investors show less optimism than our own consumers.
With the state now mortgaged to the hilt, there is profound concern about what measures are left, should this turn into a double dip recession. One of the biggest factors threatening just such an eventuality is stalled growth in the Euro area, where the end of stimulus programmes and agonising over what to do about Greece have applied the brakes.
Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, recently said the following to Parliament: "My particular concerns at present derive from the state of the world economy and our largest trading partner, the euro area...
"That will inevitably have an impact in the UK and we are already seeing that despite the depreciation of sterling, we haven't so far seen much evidence of a pick-up in net trade, which is an important part of our rebalancing. Recovery in our largest export market - the euro area - appears to have stalled."
