Is the US heading for a depression?

Here is another depressing article on the state of the US economy (sorry!).

Read it, and then answer the following questions


Paragraph 1- Businesses hit
1a) What is the generally accepted definition of the word recession?
1b) Use the graph to identify when the US economy entered a recession?
1c) In the first paragraph, which industries are mentioned as having falling sales? As an economist, what do these industries have in common?

Paragraph 2- Businesses hit
2a) Identify one key macroeconomic objective that has been damaged by the recession?
2b) Identify 4 factors that have occurred as a result of the recession


Paragraph 3 - Consumers save
3) Construct aggregate demand and supply curves based on the information in this paragraph

Paragraph 4 - Government rescue?
4a) Explain how the US Government has decided to tackle the current recession?
4b) What problems are mentioned that may limit the effectiveness of their actions?

Paragraph 5 – Financial Squeeze
5a) Explain what the term ‘toxic debt’ means.
5b) How much toxic debt has been reported?
5c) What can you say about the accuracy of this figure?