All fair points. On the other hand, growth and consumerism are also connected and how much people spend(whether it's on a corporate or personal basis) is often related to confidence in the economy.
A general positive feeling and a loosening of funds from lending institutions means people/companies going out to hire, buy and build and that's the next step to full recovery. In my opinion, this is beginning to happen, we'll just have to see if it will be sustained.
Doom and gloom on the other hand has the opposite effect so I don't really think it's a very good strategy...