Even with the New Year revelry still ringing in our ears, one can never fully take on the challenges that lie ahead in 2009 without reflecting on the year just gone. Certainly, the year 2008 will go down in history as the start of one of the country’s worst recessions since the Great Depression in the 1940’s. Bankruptcies plagued banks and investment houses, and many industries, most notable of which are the finance and auto industries, were now pinning their hopes of surviving more on the bailouts that the government was handing out like candy, than on the likelihood that the economy would put itself right in the near future.

Since the burst of the housing bubble late last year, the credit markets, the finance industry, and the US economy in general, have gone on a constant and speedy downturn.  

In an effort to stop the economy from completely reeling out of the control, leaving in its wake a slew of bad debts, failed banks, job losses, frozen consumer spending, and just recently, an auto industry on the brink of collapse, the US government has released wave after wave of rescue packages in the form of direct investment into banks, short-term loans to financial institutions, and guarantees of real-estate backed loans. 

Washington D.C. is pouring out money like there’s no tomorrow. Since the start of this crisis, the government has already apportioned a jaw-dropping $7 trillion on pledges of financial backing and bailout commitments.