A friend remarked that if the slowdown in the United States finally does impact significantly on the Irish economy it might not be a bad thing.

She's tired, she told me, of having to be unfailingly upbeat about her company's prospects and of saying that the market is difficult at the moment but that her organisation remains unaffected.

Her view is that the company is affected but that management doesn't want to admit it because admitting it might lead them on the slippery slope to realising that eight years of unparalleled growth could be grinding to a halt. And while they were geared up and gung-ho for the good times, they're really not so sure how they'll cope when everything is less than rosy.

She doesn't want to be made redundant but she's considering her options at the moment and she's thinking that a less demanding job, even with a lower salary, could still be very satisfying.

Many commentators still choose to believe that Ireland.inc can remain unscathed by a global slowdown. But it all depends, doesn't it, on the scale of that slowdown.

While we were thinking that a couple of rate cuts would restore faith in the US economy and that they'd manage to get themselves back on track by the second half of this year, it was quite reasonable to suppose that the impact on the Republic might be slight. But the news from the United States is getting worse and I find it hard to imagine that we won't start to feel increasingly uneasy about the future of our own economy.

Yet, like my friend, it seems that to worry about it is being a killjoy. In the same way that nobody wanted to believe that the dotcom industry was mainly hot air, nobody wants to believe that the good times might seriously come to a halt.

And yet the picture in the US is looking even grimmer than before. The recent Beige Book highlighted an economy where activity was either little changed or slowing down.

Retail sales were flat. Manufacturing has declined. Construction has eased. Labour markets are not as tight as they were and there are too many IT professionals looking for jobs. (In fact, the only area that is showing some growth is energy exploration - which proves that those oil companies knew what they were doing when they bankrolled George W.).

The last National Association of Purchasing Managers report was weaker than the market expected. In fact, the association is very concerned, particularly with the strength of the dollar, which it thinks is overvalued by as much as 30 per cent and which members feel is hindering exporters.

They want a change in the strong dollar stance that the administration has backed and they're making noises off-stage to try to convince both Mr Bush and the Treasury Secretary, Mr Paul O'Neill, that they should manufacture an easing in the exchange rate.

A raft of profit warnings over the past few weeks has terrorised investors both in the United States and elsewhere. Many of those warnings continue to be in the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sectors and so people are used to hearing that the Nasdaq has been looking at the lows again.

But the Nokia warning caused them to wince some more. Nokia has been a little like Ireland.inc, because the trials of other mobile phone companies have largely passed it by. Sure, the shares have plummeted from last year's highs but everybody considered Nokia to be the jewel in the crown of the mobile phone industry. And it probably still is.

But the fact remains that the market for Nokia's products is shaky right now and, once you've bought your first mobile phone, trading up isn't absolutely essential. Nokia implied that earnings would probably be flat this year (even though it's hoping for a 10 per cent increase) and investors, already nerve-racked, have shortened their time horizons so much that if they don't think there's going to be good news tomorrow they're bailing out of the stock.

And as far as the so-called "old economy" is concerned, the profits warning from Heinz was particularly nasty, making investors feel insecure no matter where their holdings are.

In Britain, new business activity has fallen sharply since last year (although you have to accept that there were still a lot of dotbomb startups early in 2000) so they're not exactly unscathed. In the Republic, we're still trotting out the positive spin despite high-profile job losses like Xerox and GlaxoSmithKline.

As readers of the column know, I'm a glass-is-half-full kind of person but I'm usually expecting it to be refilled at some point. Right now it might be half-full but I don't see anyone coming round to top it up.

Unless, of course, it's that perennially upbeat crew, the estate agents again. The housing market is the one that everybody in the State has watched with an eagle eye over the past few years. It was the dinner-table topic of preference and the cause of Government interference. And it has definitely slowed down. But, according to the estate agents, this is a good thing and not exactly true either. (I believe it's a good thing too but not necessarily for the same reasons.) Anyway, the reason that so many houses are being withdrawn from auction is, apparently, not because they won't sell but because they are going to be sold at a still higher price afterwards!

Well, maybe. But to me it's a case of caveat emptor.

The advertisements for new developments are still stunning in their depiction of the lifestyle you can have in a small one-bed apartment nowhere near a bus-stop - the rural idyll is paramount, it seems, but I wonder if people are becoming more discerning. And more nervous. An IT professional might not be feeling quite as gung-ho about the huge mortgage as he or she was a few months ago.

The advertising industry is beginning to feel the pinch too. In the US, spending projections for the rest of this year have been cut in half. Of course the tech-wreck has had a massive impact on the revenue stream for US advertising companies. Irish companies are definitely insulated from that but a head-in-the-sand attitude won't stand us in good stead if and when things begin to worsen.

People like me, scarred by living through the 1980s, can take it in our stride. But the Tiger cubs might find the going a little tougher. Unless, like my friend, they do a complete lifestyle reassessment and decide that it might be time to trade in the skinny lattes for a comforting pot of tea.