Japan, those lucky ducks, may have gotten off easy compared to what the U.S. & Europe may actually be going through.

CNBC
Japan's Lost Decade: Still a Risk for US Economy

As the U.S. economy slouches toward another recession and confidence in policymakers erodes, investors are coming to grips with the notion that the country may already be several ( Read more... )

From Advisorperspectives.com

ECRI Growth Metric Drops Yet Deeper into Negative Territory
By Doug Short
September 9, 2011

The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) growth indicator of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) has now dropped further into negative territory after oscillating in a narrow range (1.5 to 2.1) from late June through the first week ( Read more... )

Gone the days of unlimited government assistance, Too Big To Fail banks are now implementing new and/or higher user fees, as well as firing the underlings, in the face of renewed economic weakness.

New York Times
Profits Falling, Banks Confront a Leaner FutureBattered by a weak economy, the nation’s biggest banks are cutting jobs, consolidating ( Read more... )

CNBC Chance of Recession as High as 80%: Merrill Lynch Study
( Read more... )

by Gaius Publius on 8/12/2011 07:08:00 PM

Thanks to the St. Louis Fed's new ability to make data-charting easier, Paul Krugman shows us a graph of the tragic waste in the current U.S. economy. The blue line is potential GDP. The red line is actual GDP.

The gap between the black horizontal lines on the chart is half a ( Read more... )

New York Times
Aftershock to Economy Has a Precedent That Holds Lessons

Like earthquakes, financial crises seem to be accompanied by aftershocks, like the one we’ve been living through this week. They can feel every bit as bad as the crisis itself. But economic history and academic research suggest they can set the stage for a sustainable ( Read more... )

Recession 2.0 would hurt worse
By Chris Isidore @ CNNMoney August 10, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The risk of double dip recession is rising.
And while economists disagree on just how likely the U.S. economy is to fall into another downturn, they generally agree on one thing -- a new recession would be worse than the last and very difficult to pull ( Read more... )

New York Times
Second Recession in U.S. Could Be Worse Than First

If the economy falls back into recession, as many economists are now warning, the bloodletting could be a lot more painful than the last time around.

Given the tumult of the Great Recession, this may be hard to believe. But the economy is much weaker than it was at the outset of ( Read more... )

CNBC
That 1937 Feeling All Over Again

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, an expert on the Great Depression, once promised  that the central bank would never repeat its 1937 mistake of  rushing to tighten monetary policy too soon and prolonging an economic slump.

( Read more... )