We aren't even in a full blown recession yet and you are forecasting a depression worse than the 30's when the unemployment rate was 80%. Our unemployment rate is only 5.5% at this time. What makes you for-see such a disaster?

There is too much commerce between the larger countries in the world now then in the 30's. I doubt that we are going to go into a full blown depression. We certainly are reeling from the prices of some things but this has happened before and will certainly happen again.It's not the end of the world as some doomsayers promote.

Start tightening your belt and paying off as much debt as you can. If you ate beans twice a week, how much would you save? If you started doing that now, before the economy tanks completely, could you pay off a debt before the end of the year? Its way too late for a summer garden, but if you have a backyard, you could be planting a fall garden. Its not too late to plant cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussells sprouts, lettuce, radishes, turnips etc to store for winter. Consider stocking up on staples. Go to a bulk food store and stock up on basics like flour and beans so you can eat cheap this winter. If you can save twenty dollars a week on groceries, you could pay $80.00 a month on a credit card bill. Try walking, biking or carpooling to work. Aim to leave your car in the driveway as many days a week as you can. When you do take it out, run all your errands on one trip. And slow down. You get better mileage below 55mph than above it. The less $4.00 a gallon gas you burn, the more you have to pay bills down. Try making your own clothings. I make a lot of fleece pants for our family for winter. When we wear them, 65 degrees feels hot. That way, we don't burn as much natural gas in the winter. Being overextended with credit debt, both personally and nationally is a lot of what is driving the economy down. The more of us that can get ourselves stabilized, the better the chances we can avert a total economic meltdown.

No, we are in a recession. There's a big difference between a recession and a depression. No, things are not like the 1930's. There's too much trading, for one thing, and too much financial support for the US to go into a Depression. The US economy gets a boost from businesses. There's too many businesses profiting. Not every single businesses are falling down like dominos. There's about 1 million businesses, unlike the Great Depression. And the stock market is more safer for trading and exchanging today than the 1930's. The stock market system is protected and people are fully protected by banks in case a depression develops. So its not possible that a depression can develop from a recession so quickly. It takes time.

I am VERY CONCERNED!!!!!!!!

Take your money out of banks and investments and buy land. It may become worthless if the economy tanks...but will be worth money again for your children and grandchildren.

That is scary. Really it is great cause for concern. Im going to pull some info up on them on the internet. I do not like the sound of this at all. We must go back to manufacturing our own stuff... oil everything. They are playing right into their hands... what in f--(*E#*( are they thinking???

I already posted a lot of suggestions. The main thing to remember is that debt is your enemy. I can't do a lot about mine. We have a sick child and not much income. There are a lot of folks who could do a lot about theirs. If you are making a good income, tighten your belt a lot now. You don't really need one of everything and two of some things. If you don't really need something, don't buy it. Use the money to pay off debt. Start with the highest interest debt and throw everything you can at it. Cut up your credit cards and pay them off. Next, pay off your car. If there is any way you can get by with fewer cars or no car, sell them and get rid of the debt. I've been preaching this to my neighbors for years. Three years ago, they gave one of their cars to their son, who needed it for school. They've been getting by with one for the last three years. Next year they will have no debt left but their house and its cheap enough they can probably pay it off in a year or two. What is good for your economy is also good for the US economy and your health. Eat less meat. Make baked beans or bean soup each week and eat it for two or three meals. You'll lose weight and your budget will get healthy too. Cook them in soda water so they won't make you fart. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Cookbook has great recipes for old-fashioned tasty ways to cook beans. My husband and I buy oatmeal in 50lb bags from the Amish. We put a cup of oats, a cup of dry milk and 3 cups of water in a small crockpot on low every night in the winter. Each morning we have a pot of creamy, pudding like slow cooked oatmeal, high in fiber, complex carbs and protien to eat. The last time I bought a bag of oatmeal, it cost $16.00. In summer, I make home-made granola from the same oatmeal. A healthy breakfast for the three of us probably costs less than a dollar a day. I did make my own healthy whole grain bread, until I developed a wheat allergy, which cost me about a dollar a loaf. I make a pureed vegetable soup once a week, from pumpkin or winter squash, carrots, potatoes, parsnips and turnips. It probably costs 6-$7.00 a week and we eat it for 4 -5 days before it runs out. Stay away from fast food altogether. It will break your budget and your health. If you grow a backyard victory garden, not only will you have cheap food, you'll have less grass to mow and you'll use less gas. Folks got by in the Depression by taking in borders. Rent out your extra bedrooms. Sometimes folks even slept in the kitchen and rented out all their other rooms. Consider pressing your city council to modify zoning laws now. Many zoning laws passed in the last thirty years would make it very hard to get by in a bad depression. For instance, home businesses used to be a respected way to get by. It also cut down on gas consumption. If there is a grocery store in someone's front room down the street, you don't have to get out the car every time you are out of milk. Restricting clotheslines is the stupidest thing I ever heard of, but they are banned all over. Having your clean skivvies drying in the sun is not going to reduce the value of your home. Buy American wherever you can. We are running a huge trade deficit. We are transferring wealth to other countries wholesale. We are spending down the wealth stored up by our grandparents and greatgrandparents. We are congratulating ourselves on being environmentally savvy by shutting down smoke-belching factories. We haven't. We are lying to ourselves. We haven't shut anything down. We just moved them out of sight. They are belching smoke in China and Indonesia now. That is why they had to shut everything down for the Olympics. They are still effecting the environment, only with less oversight now. Oil usage is the biggest thing driving the economy down. Try to get your driving down to a bare minimum any way you can. Move closer to work if you have to. Or change jobs to one closer to home.