U.S. Recession a Bigger Risk Than China, Malkiel Says

By Allen Wan

Jan 15 , Bloomberg

U.S. recession poses a bigger threat to the global economy than a slowdown in China, according to Burton Malkiel, the Princeton University economics professor who wrote ``A Random Walk Down Wall Street.''

``The U.S. is more important to the world,'' Malkiel, 75, said during an interview. ``The U.S. is slowing down dramatically and we're going to see little or no growth in the first half of 2008. I'm not worried about a slowdown in China because growth there will still be larger than anywhere else in the world.''

Stocks in the U.S. have fallen three straight weeks and posted their worst start to a year since 1991, amid concern the economy will contract. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. joined Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co. last week in estimating that the nation may already be in a recession.

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photo: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Jan. 8, 2008. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News