Importance of reducing dependence on the US economy

In the context of the current housing slump and lackluster GDPgrowth, it is interesting to read the following excerpt from Wikipedia.

"A recession is traditionally defined in macroeconomics as a decline in a country's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more successive quarters of a year (equivalently, two consecutive quarters of negative real economic growth). However this definition is not universally accepted. The National Bureau of Economic Researchdefines a recession more ambiguously as "a significant decline ineconomic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a fewmonths."

You can almost hear the buzz predicting an oncoming recession (though I continue to hear to the contrary). People are asking -- is it a sign for something bigger and more devastating? Eighty two year old Lee writes in his book 'Where Have All The Leaders Gone?':

"Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who'sfed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay he course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damnedTitanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.

I've had enough. How about you? I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention..." (more here).

Where Lee's opinions are objective, or whether its just a sensationalistic approach to writing, is a matter of viewpoint. However, even I have felt that somewhere down the line, the promise of US got lost. The Great American Dream, got corrupted. And, there is no real sign of improvement, or change in strategy.

But that's beside the point. The question that we ask here is -- if the US market does go into a recession, how badly is the rest of the world going to be affected? Really. How many of the large organizations in India (specially in the IT sector) can actually survive with a crumbling US economy? I wonder...