Can Robust U.S. Economy Lift Global Markets?

Good news for the U.S. economy. Not so much for the rest of the world.

At LAT, "Overseas problems won't derail growing U.S. economy, analysts say":

NEW YORK — Call it the Great Divide: The new year figures to be one of robust economic growth in the U.S., with slowdowns, stagnation and setbacks everywhere else in the world.

The list of global problems is indeed long and worrisome. Europe and Japan teeter on the edge of recession. Russia careens toward a full-blown economic crisis. China's once-torrid growth is slowing faster than previously forecast. And many emerging economies are getting slammed by plunging oil prices.

All the overseas problems put together, though, are not enough to derail a strong U.S. economy, Wall Street analysts say. The Commerce Department stunned markets Dec. 23 by reporting that the nation's total economic output grew at an annual pace of 5% in the third quarter. The result blew past an already strong estimate of 3.9%.

"Spirits unleashed," was how Mark Zandi of research firm Moody's Analytics Inc. described the U.S. economy even before the final estimate for the third quarter came in.

The good U.S. economic news, forecasters said, will translate into solid but not spectacular returns in the stock market, which has been on a long bull run.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up about 11.4% for 2014, its third straight year of gains since the Great Recession. Most forecasts call for returns to be about half that in 2015 and beyond.

Forecasts can always be wrong, of course, but the new year begins with a set of unusually well-defined themes that, unless something dramatic happens, figure to play an important role in shaping the year's global economic picture. Here are a few of them...

Falling oil prices are a major factor in U.S. economic growth --- to the great consternation of the leftist climate change enviro-freaks.

But keep reading.