by Calculated Risk on 7/21/2009 01:27:00 PM

From Bloomberg: Harvard’s Feldstein Sees Risk of ‘Double-Dip’ Recession in U.S.

... “There is a real danger this is going to be a double dip and that after six months or so we’ll have some more bad news,” [Martin] Feldstein, the former head of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Reagan administration adviser, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We could slide down again in the fourth quarter.”

The economy could “flatten out” or “even be positive” in the third quarter, and then it’s likely to contract again in the last three months of the year as the effects of the federal stimulus program wear off and companies finish rebuilding inventories, he said.

“There isn’t going to be enough to sustain a really solid recovery,” he said, even though recent data has provided some “good news” on the economy.

This was the key point of the Texas Instruments post yesterday (with conference call comments on inventory). There is a possibility of short term growth as companies rebuild inventories, but then an extended period of sluggishness since end demand is flat.