baby, seasons change but people don't

I've been out in the malls lately, and I've noticed this really eerie emptiness in the stores. I've had absolutely no problem finding parking spaces either. Ordinarily at this time of the year, stores are starting to get a little busier, but it is definitely not happening this year. Stores are seeming pretty desperate for customers, too: I've noticed more "amazing sales" than usual and it's like there's a new sale every weekend. The number of coupons for free items and discounts that I'm receiving in the mail has gone way up. The type of sales they're having now are honestly more like what you would usually see the day after Thanksgiving. You can almost smell the retailers' desperation.

I'm not positive about what's causing the retail slowdown, but by now I think it's a sign of larger problems in the U.S. economy. Michigan is almost always bad, but articles like this show that it's happening all over. They even used the "R" word - recession - and I have to say that I see it coming around here for sure and I'm trying to be more careful. I've been compiling a file of stories relating to the economy and potential recession I've run across in the past couple months and it doesn't look good. Clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks it doesn't look good; supermodel Gisele will no longer accept payment in US dollars.

I guess the real question I'm asking myself right now, and trying to answer through all these stories I'm compiling, is whether or not this will be a short-term recession like others that we have experienced before, or if it will be more on the scale of the Great Depression. People I know have said that they don't believe another Great Depression is possible, but I disagree with that. Maybe that cause won't be the same, now that the FDIC exists, but I definitely believe that we can reach that state of widespread struggle and poverty again. But is it possible to avoid it, or just try to make things easier for myself if it happens?