USA In a Tailspin and Only Getting Worse!

Koolaid drinker is right!
Case in point and this is DAMN CLOSE TO HOME:
My brother just lost a seven store franchise mattress business
in Austin, Texas (one of the stronger markets too in the US).
People stopped spending and even after they closed 5 stores and tried to reorganize and used some of their retained earnings went belly up. This has happened ALOT more than you think. Most of us know a small business owner that either had to fold up or is on the verge of going under. This is very sad because independent small businesses are one of the driving forces in the USA. He busted his ass all along (working 12 + hour days) as well and had very little fat in the business, considering. Sad, just very sad.
He is in Real Estate and property management now still trying to do the American thing, but it is very tough.
When you talk about being optimistic and it's just hype, etc,
IT JUST TRULY SHOWS HOW F-CKING IGNORANT A FEW OF YOU IN HERE REALLY ARE! I guess a high school kid living with mummy has not had a chance to experience the harshness of what is going on now OR you have some insulated low pay job amd are drinking the kool aid!?! Real people have lost jobs, businesses, and houses and are living on the street RIGHT NOW! I know some personally. Tent cities have even  been created in places like Nevada, California, and Michigan to accomodate some of these people as well!

"As yet, nobody can say with any certainty whether we have in fact escaped the prospect of a global economic collapse," said the 68-page report, headed by asset chief Daniel Fermon. It is an exploration of the dangers, not a forecast.
Under the French bank's "Bear Case" scenario (the gloomiest of three possible outcomes), the dollar would slide further and global equities would retest the March lows. Property prices would tumble again. Oil would fall back to $50 in 2010.
Governments have already shot their fiscal bolts. Even without fresh spending, public debt would explode within two years to 105pc of GDP in the UK, 125pc in the US and the eurozone, and 270pc in Japan. Worldwide state debt would reach $45 trillion, up two-and-a-half times in a decade.
(UK figures look low because debt started from a low base. Mr Ferman said the UK would converge with Europe at 130pc of GDP by 2015 under the bear case).
The underlying debt burden is greater than it was after the Second World War, when nominal levels looked similar. Ageing populations will make it harder to erode debt through growth. "High public debt looks entirely unsustainable in the long run. We have almost reached a point of no return for government debt," it said.
Inflating debt away might be seen by some governments as a lesser of evils.
If so, gold would go "up, and up, and up" as the only safe haven from fiat paper money. Private debt is also crippling. Even if the US savings rate stabilises at 7pc, and all of it is used to pay down debt, it will still take nine years for households to reduce debt/income ratios to the safe levels of the 1980s.
The bank said the current crisis displays "compelling similarities" with Japan during its Lost Decade (or two), with a big difference: Japan was able to stay afloat by exporting into a robust global economy and by letting the yen fall. It is not possible for half the world to pursue this strategy at the same time.
SocGen advises bears to sell the dollar and to "short" cyclical equities such as technology, auto, and travel to avoid being caught in the "inherent deflationary spiral". Emerging markets would not be spared. Paradoxically, they are more leveraged to the US growth than Wall Street itself. Farm commodities would hold up well, led by sugar.
Mr Fermon said junk bonds would lose 31pc of their value in 2010 alone. However, sovereign bonds would "generate turbo-charged returns" mimicking the secular slide in yields seen in Japan as the slump ground on. At one point Japan's 10-year yield dropped to 0.40pc. The Fed would hold down yields by purchasing more bonds. The European Central Bank would do less, for political reasons.
SocGen's case for buying sovereign bonds is controversial. A number of funds doubt whether the Japan scenario will be repeated, not least because Tokyo itself may be on the cusp of a debt compound crisis.
Mr Fermon said his report had electrified clients on both sides of the Atlantic. "Everybody wants to know what the impact will be. A lot of hedge funds and bankers are worried," he said.