Economy 2008: It Will Suck.

Regarding the financial dimension of my previous post, the bean counters are weighing in. The prevailing view is that things will totally blow:

"We are at the brink of a recession," Standard and Poor's senior economist Beth Ann Bovino told CNNMoney.com. "We are certainly concerned."

But of course Goldman Sachs, tight with the Bush administration and recently escaped from the subprime collapse, thinks that things should be great. Thanks to what? More Fed cuts. Ask Abby Joseph Cohen, Goldman Sachs' chief U.S. investment strategist:

Cohen thinks the economy will not slip into a recession. And one big reason for her optimism is that she thinks the Federal Reserve is likely to keep lowering interest rates in order to make sure the economy doesn't grind to a halt."

Of course, Cohen neglects to mention that it is the drastic lowering of such rates over the last several years -- an era the neocons refer to as "post-9/11" -- that led us to the brink of recession in the first place. The dollar, and the United States it belongs to, has yet to recover.

At least for some. Let's not forget that some made out like bandits before the subprime collapse. Like Goldman Sachs, for one. In other words, expect the American empire economy to recede like mad in 2008. But expect those you spent 2007 hating to unfold the golden parachutes with ease.