This kind of economic news we can live with - presuming the economists did their homework right.  Analysts are thinking that a PS3 price cut in North America could be laid out on the table, with one even saying that we'll see it this spring.

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities says to GameDailyBIZ that, besides the Japan-only PS3 price cut, Sony could be basing its pricing decisions on the differential with the competition. "Should Microsoft cut the price of the 360 in the future, which I think is a strong likelihood next year, Sony will cut the price of the PS3." Probably to maintain the same price difference between the two units, not to spark a price war.

John Taylor of Arcadia Research, in the meanwhile, is betting that any price cut Sony announces will happen in springtime, after the first wave of PS3 launch units. He also thinks that the reason Sony cut the price in Japan was because of the price differential with their closest competition in the territory: the Wii. And the price difference between the two, even given the performance difference, is "way too big," he says. Pachter is less confident about any specific timeframes for a price cut, other than sometime "next year."

No promises are made in economics, though. But at least price cuts tend to be an historic trend, if not an inevitability.