Does Wall Street Crunch foretell a Worldwide Depression?

NVDL: I'm being purposefully cryptic when I say this, but a large proportion of people with any money in the world are already suffering from Depression. The financial system is as sick as the pill poppers running it.

Crunch moments such as last weekend can often signal the unwinding of a crisis, the release of tension. Maybe there will be no more big bank failures, but we must brace ourselves for the long and painful aftermath. - David Lascelles

clipped from www.businessday.co.za There is no question that this is the worst disaster ever to hit the US financial system, and the US economy and taxpayer will bear the brunt. But what is the rest of the world supposed to make of it? Can it escape? The bigger threat, though, lies in a global downturn. The US economy is softening, several of Europe’s largest economies are slowing down: Germany, France and the UK, as is Japan. The knock-on effect is bound to spread through a slowdown in world trade, and catch economies that have no exposure at all to Wall Street’s problems. The dark fear is that we could be heading for something worse than recession: depression.