Opinion - Don't count your chickens.

By early this week the FTSE-100 had recovered all losses suffered since the terrorist attacks of 11 September. That’s a big plus – especially given the Railtrack debacle – but it is still too early to talk of economic security or confidence.

Especially as there is growing evidence that the recessionary winds blowing across the Atlantic are starting to hit accountants.

Announcing its annual results last week Andersen warned ‘recent tragic events’ had already ‘adversely’ affected its new fiscal year. Meanwhile French consulting group Cap Gemini Ernst & Young warned the attacks and a generally depressed business climate had cost the group ‘significant losses in revenue and bookings’.

Everyone needs to be alive to the dangers of talking the economy into recession.

But tough questions need to be asked. Can costs be squeezed, operational structures pruned or production activities relocated? Those are the questions Cap Gemini said it was addressing. No one else should hesitate either.