Despite the global economic woes fueled by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the U.S. economy will probably come out of its slump as early as the second quarter of next year, according to a senior Wall Street watcher who was recently in Japan.

Edwin A Finn Jr., editor and president of the Dow Jones economic weekly Barron's, speaks in Tokyo.

Edwin A Finn Jr., editor and president of the Dow Jones business and financial weekly Barron's, said during a recent lecture in Tokyo sponsored by Keizai Koho Center that he also remains optimistic that Japan's economy will recover if it sticks to a structural reform path.