US slowdown not likely to be long-lasting

UNCERTAINTIES about the US economy refuse to go away. The fate of housing in particular has raised concerns about the ability of the world’s largest economy to deliver good growth in 2007.

Those rated as being in the know include influential New York based economists, who are allegedly “whispering recession” into the ears of fund managers prepared to listen to such innuendo.

But it is well to remember the US has defied the doomsayers for several years. Even after the 2001 bubble it did no more than two quarters in recession before growth started to pick up and the green shoots of recovery defied the threat posed by the impact of the high-tech bubble.