Can the US now avoid a double dip?

I wish people would stop waffling on with this fatuous term 'double dip' as though it were some sort of mythical monster, it's in the nature of living things to oscillate one way and the other; from time to time the oscillations will be of increased amplitude. When is a dip not a dip, or a double dip. In finance these oscillations are a reflection of human sentiment and uncertain judgement when they are not of a deliberate contrivance for short term gain. Whatever it is, the matter will become self-fulfilling if we don't stop banging-on about it.

Oh wise Elder One (totally agree), and why why is'nt there a minimum age for our political leaders of say 50 or 55 and make all upper age limits illegal (so long as 'compos mentis' of course)??!

I seriously doubt that western economies actually came out of recession in the first place.

Double dip is what the scumsters running the bond markets would dearly like to see so that they can clean up. The media rating agencies and most of the muppets asked to comment seem to be encouraged to spout their absurd garbage at every opportunity in an effeort the undermine sentiment. Earnings are good companies have bolstred their balance sheets and have become leaner and more competitive. The US needs to come to terms with the fact that widgets are now manufactured in China. Obama and his advisors are out of their depth and hopefully come November we will see some of these buffoons out of office so that we can get some more knowledgable people in to make some of the decisions needed to take us foward. Time to put the likes of Rogers, Roubini, Soros et al back in the nut house

A recession is 2 quarters of negative GDP in a row chaps... Not a minor statistical anomale caused by fashionable terminology (which some are too staid to adapt to).

Furthermore, our new and young cabinet are doing a bloody good job, as evidenced by the sterling appreciation triggered by our recent no nonsense budget.

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Of course the US economy will stutter with their current leadership, increasing public expenditure is precisely the opposite of that required to start reducing their very silly amounts of borrowing. The current policies do noy automatically lead to world recession, they just hinder recovery which will eventualy happen despite the daft amount of US public borrowing and costs of unecessary wars.

Western economies are in a recession in spite of what the economists- (they are paid to tell the public things are gloomy !) - and newspapers -( they want to sell more newspapers!!( predict 2% growth!! how about 8-10 in Southeast Asia?

The Economists and newspapers should go to the shopfloor- shopping centers to see where is the recession!!

its hard to see any way out of this mess which if i am right was created in the USA with the sub prime nonsense allowed by Bush and his co hortes(little we hear of them nowadays)they should be broght befoe a people court and sent to the gullags for as long as possible.Oh and take any of these other free marketeers with them as well,mention no names.

Probably a "severe growth slowdown", defined as less than 2% growth for at leats two quarters, but not a double dip. There is a dilemma - the US consumer, mired in housing-related debt and weak employment prospects, can no longer perform his traditional function of leading the economic recovery, and there is a lack of equivalent-sized dynamics in other sectors. Longer run, the economy needs to rebalance away from excessive consumption, but too much too soon in this direction would mean ongoing stagnation. On balance, maybe things will just about scrape along in some kind of middle-road scenario, but it ain't going to be an easy drive.

I cannot understand why, with US interest rates likely to remain on the floor for years, and US trade deficit widening, the USD should be expected to rise in value. Worries about the Euro seem hysterical since even if one or two weak links are snipped from the chain, the greater part of Europe will remain wedded to the Euro. Even the GBP looks good value compared with USD.

It is in the interests of the US to keep interest rates low because the demand on the government will then be less (less interest to pay on borrowing).

I guess many people will disagree with me, but the finances of a country are not that much different from household finances. If you overspend, you cannot continue spending your way out of debt, you merely add to the problem.

The difference between household spending and the spending of the nation is that the idiots at the top have little idea of how to run a budget, and they always have the peasants available to make up any shortfall by increased taxation, and lower living standards but heaven forfend if their personal finances, "rewards" are reduced because of their dismal and/or incompetent handling of the budgets.

Incidentally, in writing this article, the spell checker should have been used, but wasn't. I doubt if anybody even seriously re-read the article. "euro will fall back to parity with the dollar" makes absolutely no sense. It isn't the euro that will fall back, but the dollar and a notional, I say notional, advance of the euro to parity with the dollar. The reality is that the dollar has been devalued by printing money.

I am not so worried about the slow growth in the US and in Europe(it comes and goes) but more by the huge debts that the US and Europe are facing.The situation in Europe is really worrying, it would take very little for a cataclysm to be triggered and then the all economic world would disintegrate