Double Dip Predicted

Goldman Sachs is predicting snail-like growth in the next two quarters, not nearly fast enough to pull us out of the morass. What is worse, this represents a turnaround from their earlier predictions for the period, which were at least mildly optimistic.

Colin Barr has written about all this for Fortune, his article you can see here. His scariest quote is this one:

Lots of people have no money and even more lack confidence they will be employed a year from now, so no one is spending.

In a consumer-driven economy like ours, no one spending is not good. David Leonhardt, who writes for The New York Times, believes the consumers have stopped driving the economy and that we need a new model. His gloomy prediction:

The old consumer economy is gone, and it’s not coming back.