Will Hutton, Gabriel Stein, John Ryding

After years of plain sailing the US economy has entered treacherous water. A housing slump and a credit crisis have pushed America toward recession, the UK is already catching the fall out and the repercussions threaten to spread around the globe. Stephen Sackur asks if the leading world economies can avoid catastrophe in 2008. Analysts of the British, US and world economies give their assessment.