US economy faces "double-dip" recession

Economists in the United States, are worried that their country's maybe facing a double-dip recession.

A disappointing employment situation and a lack of consumer confidence is adding to concerns that the economy doesn't have enough momentum to fully recover. This story, comes courtesy of Reuters.

By many measures, the US economy seems to be in recovery mode. But there is no guarantee it will stay there. And that's the subject of a growing debate that has even Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke weighing in.

Earlier this week, he addressed concerns about a possible double dip recession, saying that in his opinion the US economy does appear to have enough momentum to avoid one.

And while being cautious, economist Maria Fiorini Ramirez of MFR agrees:

Maria Fiorini Ramirez, CEO of MFR Inc., said, "I think that we will avoid a double dip recession however I also do think that we are going to take a long time to come out of this recession and growth is going to be very slow, it's going to be ups and downs."

May's disappointing employment report has renewed concerns about a jobless recovery. And that has added to worries that the European debt crisis could slow the global recovery.

Meantime, a new report from IBD and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence showed consumer confidence deteriorated so far in June- thanks to worries about jobs and the steep stock market drop.

That's not a surprise to Steve Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities who sees a good chance of a double dip recession.

Steve Richuto, Chief Economist, Mizuho Secrities USA, said, "The key risks to the economy right now are really that consumers are forced to retrench their spending. You know they are looking at an environment right now where they are just getting their monthly statements back from their mutual funds and they are seeing fairly large hits. And a month or two ago when they were seeing nice positives they felt comfortable to go out and spend money. Now as they begin to see that that is not as sustainable as they thought, if they retrench a little bit in here that can have a multiple impact through the economy and can actually cause the economy to stumble and if the economy stumbles in here that would be a double dip."

And that could be double trouble for consumers still recovering from a recession that has hit so many so hard.

Source:Xinhua