There are some signs of encouragement, including retail buoyancy at high-end department stores, improved car sales and even mild construction growth. But the nerve-racking situation that has put pessimists in ascendance got its statistical impetus late last month, when the government reported that the economy had grown much more slowly than originally thought during the first half of the year.

A few days later, after a bruising fight, Congress passed a compromise bill to cut the federal debt, a move that few saw as a meaningful long-term remedy. And by last week, the stock market started its precipitous slide, which continued Monday after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the federal debt late Friday night.

The chain of events has made the prospect of another recession — a so-called double-dip — an obsession on Wall Street, in board rooms and living rooms across the country. For many businesses, it is already suppressing hiring. In Houston, for example, Pamela Clark, vice president of a family-owned paint company, had a flurry of new orders earlier this year and began searching for an office clerk and a paint maker.

It was the first time the company, the Preservo Paint and Coatings Manufacturing Company, had considered hiring since the recession. But Ms. Clark has yet to offer anyone a job. Orders have become unpredictable as clients — including the makers of blow dryers and bathtubs — say they feel uncertain about the economy and what the government is doing about it.

“There is no logic to how it goes any longer,” Ms. Clark said. “So we’re in a holding pattern to see what’s going to happen with the economy.”