So will the subprime crisis drag the US into a recession in 2008? Depends who you ask.

Some Wall Street experts say there's no more than a 30 to 40 per cent chance of the R-word taking hold. Still, they expect slower-than-normal growth in the first half of 2008, followed by a pickup in the second half.

The Financial Times says subprime losses will take several months to work their way through the system but the US will not tip over the brink, in part owing to continued strong exports to the rest of the world. Still, it warns that the US is in for a period of growth that might be lower than a snake's belly. The FT also predicts that Google's share price will go past $1000 and and oil will hit $100 a barrel.

On the other side of the fence, Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and the chairman of analysis firm RGE warns in his blog that the US is now in the grip of "worst housing recession since the Great Depression or, better, the worst housing recession ever in US history".

"This worsening housing recession, together with the worst liquidity and credit crunch in the last 20 years, oil close to $100, faltering capex spending by the corporate sector and a saving-less and debt-burdened consumer that is on the ropes and stopped spending (in real terms) in December will lead in 2008 to the worst US economy wide recession of the last 20 years. At this point the debate is only on how mild or severe this recession will be, not on whether we will have one."

Not that you will find much discussion of this in the US media. Must have something to do with all the focus on Paris Hilton losing her inheritance, Britney Spears' sister getting pregnant or Lindsay Lohan's latest Atrocity.