Each year the world's central bankers head for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to take stock. Last year's meeting was dominated by the brewing economic crisis: Participants spent much of their time in a command center set up to monitor and respond to developments. The center was up and running again at this year's get-together last week, but it was usually empty. Instead, the bankers were generally optimistic about the state of the global economy and were beginning to look around the corner to the next stage in the recovery.

Mr. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, set the tone for this year's meeting, declaring that "The prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good." His optimism was matched by that of Mr. Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, who concluded that "It is reasonable to declare that the worst of the crisis is behind us, and that the first signs of global growth have appeared earlier than we generally expected nine months ago."

The positive outlook has been fueled by signs that the slowdown is slowing. Mr. Bernanke noted that the U.S. economy appears to be leveling out. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. leaped 7.2 percent in July, the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the biggest monthly increase in over a decade. Most important, it is the first year-to-year increase since November 2005. For its part, Japan registered 0.9 percent growth in the second quarter of 2009 from the previous quarter, while key European economies of Germany and France recorded 0.3 percent growth. Not surprisingly, the attendees were also inclined to give themselves credit for responding as quickly as they did, sometimes fighting prevailing sentiment, and stopping the situation from getting even worse.