Analysts are trying to determine whether the U.S. economy is on the rebound or whether we’re headed for another plunge.

Mark Dotzour, chief economist and director of research at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, said the economy functions like a pendulum and that we were at a neutral point on its swing.

“Beginning in 2003, America started running on a laissez-faire economy, which means unbridled, unregulated capitalism,” Dotzour said. “We had strong economic recovery, taxes were lower, businessmen and women were hiring and the economy was thriving.”

Dotzour said the U.S. was employing a model that was the antithesis of laissez-faire — progressivism. The hallmark of progressivism was heavier governmental regulation, redistribution of wealth and higher taxes.

He paralleled today’s economic climate with that of post-World War I America. U.S President Calvin Coolidge ran a government based on laissez-faire ideology, often appointing commissioners to the Interstate Commerce Commission and Federal Trade Commission who were sympathetic with his hands-off economic approach. Coolidge led America into the 1920s, a period of rapid economic growth in the wake of World War I.

During his tenure following Coolidge’s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pushed the pendulum back towards progressivism, and though there were other contributing factors, it took World War II to get the American economy back on track.

Dotzour said more than $2 trillion of cash is sitting on business’ balance sheets waiting to be deployed.

“I see business owners like racecar drivers,” Dotzour said. “They have well-oiled machines with all the support and equipment needed to compete in the race, but they’re going around the track in circles waiting for the government to drop the yellow caution flag and let the race begin.”

Stewart Townsend, a double major in accounting and finance who will graduate in August, said that a main contributing factor for the recession is hesitation from firms.

“Companies have tons of cash but are afraid to reinvest their liquidity into the market because there’s still so much uncertainty with interest rates, industry regulation, and the scared consumer, and we can see in their leaner budgetary plans,” Townsend said.

Dale Pippin, senior management information systems major, said the government is spending too much on things like health care reform and letting the national debt pile up too high.

“We just had an massive oil spill that has taken away large amounts of one of our most important resources,” Pippin said. “I think we need to be keeping a closer check on spending and think about how it’s affecting our future.”