Risks to the economy is going to be just fine scenario this year.

I'm David Browncaccio in New York.

Economic forecasts for the coming year generally are upbeat.

They paint a picture of fairly low unemployment, gradually slowing

inflation and continued economic growth, but there are always risks. Some are global and some

come from Washington DC.

Marketplace as Nancy Marshall Genser takes it from here.

Nobody says things will be perfect this year,

including Andrew Patterson, senior International Economist at Vanguard.

Rather than cautiously optimistic,

I'd say we're optimistically cautious.

Patterson sees inflation working its way down

toward the Federal Reserve's 2% target, the Fed cutting interest rates,

unemployment rising a bit, and the economy's still growing slowly.

He's not expecting the Fed to get the soft landing that it wants, that ideal scenario where the economy slows just enough to tame inflation without causing a recession.

He's predicting more of a delayed landing with a slight recession.

If we were to have a delayed landing, maybe you end up with zero growth, slightly negative,

but certainly nothing, at least as far as we see it now nothing akin to 2008 or 2020.

Over at Wells Fargo, senior economist Sarah House expects any contraction in GDP will be one of the mildest since World War II.

The wild card, you and me, us consumers, who House says power about 70% of U.S. economic growth.

Can consumers continue to spend?

Where do we see a pullback as the job market softens a bit and perhaps consumers grow more

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