More signs of recession coming with Bloomberg reporting that US corporate corporate profits, as measured by the Commerce Department, have fallen at an annual rate of $19.3 billion in the third quarter from the second. Most of the damage comes from the weak US dollar and the financial sector, where operating earnings fell 25 percent. Banks and brokers hurt by losses from subprime mortgages and related investments are on the ropes and reeling. And it will continue.

"The earnings recession has already arrived. We are going to see an economic recession in '08,'' Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg told Bloomberg.

"In my judgment, the likelihood of a recession in early 2008 has now risen to well above 50 percent," Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss told Associated Press following a drop in the Business Conditions Index for November.