The current financial crisis was precipitated by a bubble in the US housing market. In some ways it resembles other crises that have occurred since the end of the second world war at intervals ranging from four to 10 years. However, there is a profound difference: the current crisis marks the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency. The periodic crises were part of a larger boom-bust process. The current crisis is the culmination of a super-boom that has lasted for more than 60 years. [...] Globalisation allowed the US to suck up the savings of the rest of the world and consume more than it produced. [...] Credit expansion must now be followed by a period of contraction, because some of the new credit instruments and practices are unsound and unsustainable. [...] Although a recession in the developed world is now more or less inevitable, China, India and some of the oil-producing countries are in a very strong countertrend. So, the current financial crisis is less likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the global economy, with a relative decline of the US and the rise of China and other countries in the developing world. [...]
InTrade on the likelihood of a US recession in 2008
Before you go for a suicide, be sure to read Zubin Jelveh’s counter point. (That may be why Caveat Bettor is shorting the US recession event derivative. 
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And, to prepare yourself for the recession, read Robert Scoble’s common-sense advice.
