(Good) Signs of the Times

However, there is some indication the crisis has actually helped stimulate the U.S. economy by increasing the flow of international money into the United States and lowering interest rates here. "We keep hearing that the turmoil in Asia will slow growth in the United States, but when you look at the employment numbers you get the idea there's still a lot of horsepower left in the economy," says Russ Labrasca, senior VP at Principal Financial Securities of Dallas. Labrasca says he is still wary, however, since the final quarter of 1997 was already well underway when the Southeast Asian economy began to unravel, meaning this is the first year in which U.S. companies have had to deal with an economy fully enveloped by that crisis.