Double-Dip Recession Talk Revives

ByJohn S. McClenahen In the wake of an unexpected 3.8% decline in June new orders for durable goods, an 11.7% plunge in sales of existing homes and softness in equity issues, there's some talk about the U.S. economy contracting again, resulting in a so-called double-dip recession. Maury Harris, chief U.S. economist at UBS Warburg LLC, New York, is not one of the people talking that way, however. "Our basic belief [is] that the recovery is unfolding in a satisfactory, if unspectacular fashion," says Harris. "So far the equity slide does not appear to have stopped recovery, and we do not expect that it will."