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The U.S Federal Reserve has released the worst-case scenarios it wants banks to stress test against, and some of them are downright apocalyptic.

As part of the stress tests, which the Fed announced it wants banks to do annually, U.S. lenders will have to simulate the effects of a severe recession hitting the U.S. What does that involve, you ask?

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In the Fed’s bleakest scenario, the United States would slip into recession in the fourth quarter of 2011 (the one we’re currently in) and post four consecutive quarters of negative growth. The unemployment rate would peak at 13.05%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average would plunge all the way to 5,668 points (from the current level of 11,305). That would be even lower than the Dow’s financial crisis low in March 2009, when it settled at 6,547.

The Fed’s simulated recession would be deepest in the first quarter of 2012, when real GDP would contract by a whopping 7.98%. Peak unemployment wouldn’t hit until a year later.