The Great Crash of 2008 turning into the Global Depression of 2009

Several major U.S. firms have declared bankruptcy or begun liquidation, and it's expected that the list of casualties will mount as the final results of 2008 come in.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Mary Delk, a director in the retail practice at consulting Firm Deloitte LLP, confirmed, "This will go down as one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record."

Earlier this week, the top economist at the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, warned that continued declines in consumer spending will set off a global depression.

Blanchard told the French newspaper Le Monde, "Consumer and business confidence indexes have never fallen so far since they began. …. It is imperative to stifle this loss of confidence, to restart household consumption, if we want to prevent this recession developing into a Great Depression."