America's back, says Newsweek. The cover is being cited as a classic contrarian indicator, a sign that America actually is about to fall back into recession. Barry Ritholtz disagrees, saying that the magazine cover jinx works only after editors flog a trend that has been around for months or years and can't think of anything better than to wring more mileage out of it by putting it on the cover.

But economic recovery is not a trend on its last legs. It may not even be a trend. In this case, if anything, Newsweek editors are ahead of the facts, not behind them. That's a common error, too, like when the Wall Street Journal proclaimed the death of rock and roll in the 1980s. As usual I agree with the clever and subtle Ritholtz.

Read Daniel Gross's Newsweek piece here.