The heart of the financial world is the first stop for Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness on their week-long visit to the United

If it's Monday, it must be Wall Street...

The heart of the financial world is the first stop for Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness on their week-long visit to the United States.

The executive leaders head off to the USA next week

It's a trip that will take the First and Deputy First Ministers from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq stock market in Times Square, and on to Capitol Hill and the White House.

Most ministers in the executive have travelled to the States since devolution, several have been more than once.

But this, say their advisers, is the "big gig".

Dr Paisley and Mr McGuinness will spearhead a determined effort to secure what Northern Ireland desperately needs: a significant increase in foreign direct investment.

But with the US economy faltering because of the nation's credit woes, could there be a worse time to ask American big business to invest in Northern Ireland?

This is where the "glass-is-half-full-or half-empty" analysis comes into play.

"I think they've chosen exactly the right time to go," says Invest Northern Ireland's Chief Executive Leslie Morrison.

The former investment banker knows more than most about US business sentiment - he worked for the banking giant JP Morgan in New York for many years.

"In the build-up to the US Investment Conference to be held in Belfast next May, this ministerial trip will show executives what devolution has brought to us - political and social stability," he said.