The Nation's Economic Outlook

THE NATION’S ECONOMIC OUTLOOK By Jack Malehorn THE NATION’S ECONOMy…A PrECArIOUS POSITION T T he U.S. economy appears to be perched perilously on a steep ledge without a strong foothold. For the first time, the participants of the Economic Consensus Outlook projections reflect a wavering economy. Rajeev Dhawan, Director of the Economic Forecasting Center of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, places the situation in a lucid perspective. Like many of his colleagues in the Outlook, Dhawan is not calling for a recession but he does recognize a distinct possibility. Dhawan believes that the U.S. economy will perform at a sub-par level until 2010. The key attributes for this are the less than sanguine outlook including credit crisis, falling home prices, and rising oil prices. He believes that the nation’s economy will grow at an anemic rate of 1.1% in real GDP, followed by 1.7% in 2009. With respect to the credit crisis, Dhawan believes that this sector will continue to struggle. Despite an aggressive stance by the Fed in easing liquidity concerns, he believes that due to deteriorating balance sheets current losses have already been reflected. ...