风水轮流转

Fall from grace

很多蓝筹经济学家认为，美国经济已经陷入或者正在走向近期内最严重的衰退之中。如果消费者被这样的预测吓倒，暂缓对公司和其他经济来源的投资，那么预言可能成真。然而，就像经济学家们常说的，如果美联储因此进一步下调利率，大选之年的政治也没有妨碍国会和白宫就经济刺激问题采取让步，那么厄运也就不会降临。

One by one,many blue-chip economists are starting to opine that the U.S. economy is either in or sliding into what may be the most heavily forecast recession in recent memory. All economists agree that the U.S. economy has slipped into a slow-to-no-growth mode,but it's still too soon to say whether growth is turning negative. Only the National Bureau of Economic Research can do that,and usually only long after the economy has recovered. But the obvious slowdown in the U.S. economy is already beginning to affect the growth of the container shipping trades outside of North America,which through most of last year remained immune to the slow-growth virus.