Average Americans and Experts Differ

I recently read an article found in Business Week entitled, "The Economy: Why So Gloomy?" The author of the article made the point that many experts of the U.S. economy and the average consumers do not see eye to eye on the current trend. Over the last three months of the year, the market has been a relative rollercoaster, with some very high days and a large amount of extreme low days. People question whether or not we will head into a recession within the next year, and the buzz has touched my interests. I have never lived through a recession that I can remember, but the idea scares me a little. The experts on the market are optimistic in the face of the declining consumer spending that has occured over the past few months. Some people feel that the consumer spending will drop from 3.6% growth from the end of last year to 2.5% growth for the remainder of 2007. This may not sound like much of a decline, but consumer spending accounts for around 70% of total G.D.P. Where is the market going? Are the experts right? Will the economy continue to grow over the next two years or are the scared consumers foretelling the inevitable future? I think that the consumers are trying to see into the future and may be right on this matter. We should probably prepare ourselves for a recession.