Five factors that could propel a U.S. economic recovery

Investors don't have to search far and wide to identify the factors that might perpetuate the U.S. recession beyond mid-year: a forecast that the recession will continue past June is the consensus opinion among economists, Wall Street analysts, and policy makers in Washington.

Even so, economic fundamentals are such that rarely is one side 100% correct, and given the general media's penchant for emphasizing the negative, a healthy skepticism suggests presenting the contrarian view - - in this case the bullish case.

With the above as background, here are five factors that could propel a U.S. economic recovery:

1) The bank bailout – Yes, a plan to rid the banking system of toxic assets - - or at least get them into a federal or private/public 'side car' where they would have time to regain value, would aid the U.S. recovery.