The word for the economic outlook of the United States? Bleak

This man, Jan Hatzius, is the highly respected chief economist at Goldman Sachs, and not likely one to get his predictions wrong. So when he writes a client and states:

We see two main scenarios for the economy over the next 6-9 months — a fairly bad one in which the economy grows at a 1½%-2 percent rate through the middle of next year and the unemployment rate rises moderately to 10 percent, and a very bad one in which the economy returns to an outright recession.

Then I am thinking things are looking bleak for the U.S., which will not be good for Canada or many other nations in the world. Worse, in the U.S., political leaders are planning to assume Hooverite positions when it comes to the economy. And we all know how well that went.

If you can stomach it, you can get the rest of the article here: ‘Fairly Bad’ or ‘Very Bad’ Economic Scenarios – Goldman’s Jan Hatzius Forecasts – NYTimes.com.

(Photo: Michael Falco for the New York Times)