While some economists remain downbeat about Japan's economy, there is also an important division between two schools of recent optimists.

ECONOMIST: Japan’s moment of truth? | The

While some economists on the alleged fringe seek the Fed's abolishment, there's a general acceptance among the profession that the Fed plays a necessary economic role in setting the short rate for cash, or the Fed funds rate.

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While some bankers and economists express concern about the plan, reaction has been largely favorable, as NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.

NPR: Federal Plan To Invest In Banks Met With Caution

While it is likely some refined products such as diesel fuel will be exported, economists have suggested that any such exports would help, not hurt the economy by providing a major boost to the current trade deficit.

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Some economists think that the resulting bias towards higher inflation - at least while the economy remains depressed - would help to make debts more manageable by eroding their value, and would encourage people to spend more for fear that their savings would also be eroded by rising prices.

BBC: UK inflation unchanged at 2.7% in November

So, if we credit the Reagan approach of cutting income taxes for the richest among us while lowering capital gains rates as the driver of some stellar economic growth credit that not all economists believe is warranted why does the Reagan approach no longer appear to work?

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While the growth of communist economics was the subject of innumerable alarmist books and polemical articles in the 1950s, Some economists who looked seriously at the roots of that growth were putting together a picture that differed substantially from most popular assumptions.

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