At JCM Industries, a collection of low-slung buildings and factories in a Texan field, president Ron Collins fears he might have to lay people off. The cause is not the recession but the government stimulus package aimed at ending it.

The family company manufactures pipe-fittings and struggled when America’s housing bubble burst and construction work tailed off. It managed to hang on to its 140-strong workforce by expanding its exports to Canada and Mexico instead.