Economic Forecast 2012 Overview

Advertising executive Patricia Courtois looks at 2012 for her firm, for the firm's clients, and, essentially, for the entire region's economy, in three words that could hold for hundreds of businesses: exciting, challenging, frustrating.

Welcome to 2012 — the year in which many hope will be marked by recession recovery. Still, executives and entrepreneurs from Tampa to Naples are going into the next year with a highwire mix of confidence and trepidation.

There is confidence, in varying degrees, that the job market will continue to improve, and consumer spending will return in force. But there's also a substantial hum of trepidation, considering all the factors that could impact the confidence in a negative way. So just like it was in 2010 and 2011, uncertainty is the word of the day in economic forecasting.