DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: Is the U.S. economy, perhaps, already in a recession? Some interesting notes on that from the National Bureau of Economic Research. We have them from a report today in the "Financial Times" of London. Joining me, Lionel Barber, from London. Hi, Lionel, what do you have?</s>LIONEL BARBER, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Good morning. Well, our front page story notes that the memorandum from the Bureau of National Economic Research says that the United States may have entered recession. Now, it's not making a definitive judgment -- there's still a bit of room for maneuver -- but clearly this takes forward some of the negative assessments which have been out in the private sector. And obviously, the timing is very interesting because of the FOMC meeting tomorrow morning.</s>MARCHINI: Question: Does the Bureau have a stellar track record when it comes to calling recession?</s>BARBER: I think it's got a pretty good one. Of course, we haven't had a recession in the United States for 10 years, so they haven't had a lot of practice recently, so to speak. But I think that, really, the question tomorrow is there's been a very aggressive Fed rate cutting policy, I think, essentially, designed to bail out the IT sector, a certainly large and very important part of the economy. But on the other hand, consumer spending still seems to be holding up quite well, and that's, certainly, what the administration is looking at and steering clear of that "R" word, "recession." As long as consumer spending holds up, I think it would be better if the dollar was a little less strong and the euro is less weak. I think then there may be a temptation to hold off, but I really wouldn't want to second-guess what the Fed is going to do.</s>MARCHINI: Lionel Barber of the "Financial Times," thank you so much.
'Financial Times': Bureau of National Economic Research Memorandum Says United States May Be in Recession