These quarters were probably the first to benefit significantly from the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed earlier in 2009. Up until quite recently, the dominant metaphor one heard for the economy was that it was on its way to a healthy recovery but was hitting occasional “soft patches.” This reading of the data always seemed to me quite optimistic.
Now, I believe, nearly everyone has toned down their expectations. I think the better metaphor is of an economy slogging through the mud and occasionally hitting stretches of dry pavement, which may well have been associated with the peak effects of fiscal and monetary policy initiatives.