Global economic problems loom over U.S.

Global growth has aided the U.S. economy the past five years, but policymakers are now grappling with what to do as the economy in the U.S. and elsewhere slows - how do you enact policy when so many things that influence the U.S. are outside its borders?


Many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year. With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/business/13econ.html?ex=1357966800&en=66b63003878fb9c1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink