Double-dip Recession | featured news

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny does not expect the U.S. economy to enter a double-dip recession and is more concerned about fast-growing developing markets, he told a newspaper.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned in a letter to Congress that failure to raise the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling would drive up interest rates, push down household wealth, put more pressure on federal entitlement programs and cause a double-dip recession.

That figure, projected through 2013, represents a worst-case scenario that assumes a double-dip recession, the Federal Housing Finance Agency says. The finance giants have so far received about $148 billion in taxpayer funds.

Second-quarter economic growth was revised to an anemic 1.6%, a decline that was slightly less than many economists had predicted. But the report was a sobering cap to a week of bad economic news that has raised fears the nation could plunge into another recession.

Buying activity in the residential real estate market slowed dramatically in July, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors. The dramatic plunge is yet another sign the U.S. economy may be heading toward a slowdown or double-dip recession.

Renewed fears of a so-called “double-dip” recession are weighing on investors, spooking consumers and slowing businesses from hiring.

As the economy shows troubling signs of another slowdown, some economists are beginning to worry about the possibility of a "double-dip" recession.