Bear Stearns U.S. Economics: Economic Outlook for 2008

We present our central forecast for growth, inflation, monetary policy, and the fixed income markets.  We also discuss some of the key risks to our outlook.  Our central view is that the current turmoil in the financing markets and the associated credit crunch in the housing market slows, but does not derail, economic growth in the near term and that by the second half of next year, the restraints on growth will have eased considerably. (total 4 pages)