It’s no secret the economy stinks. That’s not the question. The real question now is: how bad will it get?

As I said in my post, “10 Signs We’re Headed for Another Recession – Or That the Last One Never Ended,” there is a laundry list of things wrong with the economy – housing is still down, unemployment and under employment is still up, credit is still tight, GDP growth in non-existant – and all of these things never really got any better since the end of The Great Recession.

Sure, there was a momentary upward tick in GDP due almost entirely to deficit spending by our government. It wasn’t due to a true rebound in housing or job growth, two things that have normally taken us out of recessions in the past.

So, since things never really got any better, that has to beg the following questions:

Did we ever really get out of The Great Recession? If not (which, as stated before, I don’t believe we did), are we in a depression?

I’m not ready to declare the United States economy as being in a depression, but it’s starting to get awfully close, and I think soon enough, we’ll start hearing more discussion of “the D word” as opposed to “the R word.”

Despite the fact the government and the Federal Reserve have pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, home prices are still depressed, we’re still losing more jobs than we’re gaining and the stock market is starting to crater. And, the reason why I think we will ultimately end up in a depression is the fact the government isn’t going to be able to spend it’s way out of this downturn. We’re already tapped out; that well has run dry.

Needless to say, I think we are on the verge of very, very trying economic times.

What do you think? Leave your comments below and, as always, please share this post using the social bookmarking buttons – especially Facebook and Twitter.