Fears of a Double-Dip Dropping

One of Wall Street's biggest and oldest investment houses has joined the growing ranks of number-crunchers seeing steady improvements recently out of the U-S  economy.

Some are even forecasting it may *not* be tipping back into the double-dip recession they worried about earlier this summer.

Charles Sachs of Corals Gables' Evensky & Katz says " I think what you've been seeing up until this point is the probability increasing we could be seeing a double-dip recession. Now we're starting to see news that growth could be a little but better than we thought. 

Goldman Sachs economists confirm the U-S Economy did better than they expected last quarter, so they upgraded the strength of the recovery.

That follows the latest slowly-improving job numbers and new gains out of the U-S construction and manufacturing sectors.

The latest September numbers out of the auto industry show improving sales.

Some economists now forecast 4th quarter sales numbers for the auto industry to be the best of the year for many brands.

Still, some financial analysts warn forecasting where the u-s economy is heading may be tricky..until unemployment starts dropping and job creation starts growing again.

Sachs adds "Goldman is a very formidable shop out there but it's not just isolated to them. We've seen about 1/2 a dozen shops out there talk about this. But remember, there's hundreds of economists out there .So to pick 1/2 a dozen who say one thing or the other is suspect. One needs to know the problem with forecasting the future is.... it's very hard to do."

Falling oil prices could lead to lower food and shipping costs thru the end of the year if the trend continues.

Consumer Confidence is seeing some slight improvements, which could lead to better- than-expected holiday spending.

And that could keep the U-S Economy moving in the right direction thru early next year.