There are two hot topics in the U.S. offshore outsourcing industry today-first, what the likely impact of the recession will be and second, what will be the likely impact of Barak Obama's presidency. While the former has attracted some good intellectual debate, with sound arguments and evidence to support both sides of the story, the latter has received pretty naive coverage, mostly from senior executives of offshore outsourcing or advisory firms desperate to allay their customer's concerns. One fundamental question that they fail to address is why Obama should care about offshore outsourcing. If it was so simple and so straightforward that offshore outsourcing is good for corporations, good for countries, good for economies, then why would Obama even consider doing anything about it?

The phrase 2.0 has been bandied about since 2004 and it has become the de facto appendage to make a service offering slick, cool, hyped and worthy of attention of media and venture capitalists. But what does 2.0 mean? What is this new wave or generation or model of outsourcing all about?

A few weeks ago I was at an offshore group meeting, and a debate started on the impact of recession on outsourcing. Overall verdict was that a recession will not derail offshoring and, in fact, may even significantly increase demand for offshoring. I was still left unsure about it so I thought why not get to the heart of the matter, look at the financial results and outcome from the various categories of offshore outsourcers and then, let everyone decide for themselves about what's really going on.

As the US economy continues its downward spiral, analysts who predicted lost jobs would cause a surge in outsourcing are eating their words.