The high-paying, king-making Wall Street that everyone was once in awe of practically vanished after JP Morgan's purchase of Bear Stearns in March, Lehman Brothers' closure in September, and Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch that same time. When the dust had settled, only two were left standing: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

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.

One of the key economic indicators that tell a story behind an economy is the unemployment rate. As of November 2008, the United States has experienced unemployment levels not seen since 1994 as American companies cut back on expenses, slash payrolls, and literally put thousands of workers to “the streets”. This sets the background for the sharpest decline of the economy in decade. It will be tough to get out of this financial rut for many years to come. The jobless rate in October 2008 rose to 6.5% from 6.1% in the previous month. Companies slashed 240,000 jobs in September and 284,000 jobs in October, the largest two-month loss since 2001. As the surge of job loss continues, the government is pressured to put together an economic plan that will help America’s unemployed.

While a number of government officials still would like to avoid using the seemingly taboo "R" word (recession) in referring to the state of the US economy, a number of factors would otherwise indicate that in fact, it has been in that condition for almost a year now, without showing any signs of letting up. Plummeting stocks, rising unemployment, investment houses, once thought to be bastions of high finance, closing shop one after another, and a general feeling of alarm among the American people only support the inescapable fact that indeed, the US is facing an economic crisis such that has not been known since the Great Depression in the 1930’s.