by Hugh Holub

Created on: February 05, 2009

Experts have been saying the current economic recession is the worst since WW II.

One has to remember that in 1941 the country was still in the Great Depression. No one seems to want to admit what is going on right now may make the Great Depression look more like how WWI looked in comparison to WW II.

What's going on right now is like a Category 6 hurricane.

We all read the national news, and get some hint of what's going on locally in our local newspapers and tv stations. But many of us are getting very first hand experiences with this. Either we've lost our jobs or someone close to us has. Self-employed folks and small business people don't show up on the unemployment lists but many of us have seen our cash flow crash, we've had to layoff or reduce the hours of our staff, and we're the other half of the economy that doesn't show up in the national stats.

The cascading effect of what is going on is reaching every corner of the economy and the country. More and more people are losing their incomes or seeing their cash flow slashed, and they in turn are starting to default on mortgage and credit card bills. It is a vicious cycle. More houses are lost, driving market values below other people's mortgages, putting them upside down.

Consumers aren't using credit cards to buy anything, because who knows if you'll have an income tomorrow to pay the bills. Retail sales have plummeted, pushing more people out of jobs.

State and local sales and property tax revenues have dropped, resulting in layoffs in the governmental sector and reductions of services. More people who can't pay their personal bills and mortgages.

Even the post office is complaining that they are delivering less mail because of the downturn, leading them to be talking about eliminating one day of mail delivery.

Every where you look, lightning is striking, gusts of winds are blowing, and storm surges are flooding.

And does anyone think what Washington has done and is planning to do will stop this hurricane of economic disaster?

The fundamental problem here is that the federal government has already dumped about $2 trillion into economic rescues, credit lines, and Federal Reserve gimmicks, and nothing has changed at the street level. And the $900 billion on deck in Congress right now isn't going to reach the street.

The whole approach to straightening out this mess has been a top-down enterprisewith the money flowing to those very people who caused this mess in the first place. Does anyone cure a drunk by giving

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