Until very recently, the economy was spinning its wheels — or, as readers of this column might remember me saying, “sleepwalking.” Couched in terms of real GDP growth, the nation was slogging along at less than 2 percent growth in 2016 and then at a pale 2.2 percent in 2017 — 3.2 percent is the long-running average, if we go back to the 1950s when calculating.

But then in the latter part of 2017, something happened. The sleepwalking economy seemed to awaken, rub its eyes, and begin to trot. Growth accelerated.