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There is no doubt the US is in a great economical financial crisis, probably the worst since the ‘Great Depression’. But one can’t help but ask; just how bad are things going to get? And exactly who is going to feel the worst of this crisis?

The sure thing you can bet on is that taxes are going to go up and the financial burden of this bailout will be felt nationwide. It will be felt not only by the banks themselves (nationwide), but their infrastructures and communities as well. Even the auto loan industry and credit card companies are at risk as well as insurance companies, as individuals drop existing policies and refused to take on new ones.

About 9.8 million people or 7% of the American workforce are employed in the financial, real estate, and the insurance sectors and they have an even larger spending potential. Many towns and community clusters that are based around these jobs will be devastated according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi D-Calif. “In the past two weeks, we’ve seen things we never thought we would see before in terms of the economic insecurity of our own country.” It is expected that New York City will lose 11% or 65,000 financial jobs according to Moody’s Economy.com, and Manhattan’s real estate prices are going to bottom out. Reports from the Labor Department showed that employers had slashed 159,000 jobs in the month of September alone, showing the largest cut five years.

This begs the question; just how close are we to another Great Depression? “We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis” said House leader John Boehner R-Ohio, just before voting on the bailout bill. “And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen.” Having government interference in private capital markets would have been unheard of until now. Nancy Pelosi said that the bill would be needed to “Begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people.”

There is no doubt the average working American will be paying hundreds if not thousands more in taxes to cover this bailout bill, and thousands upon thousands of jobs will be lost. Put this on top of the already bad economy, the massive job loss with the auto industry, and the massive spending with the war, one can’t help but to wonder how we will recover as a nation. If you thought the idea of stay-cations was bad this year, it’s only going to get worse. So get a good pair of walking shoes, because it’s going to be a long hard road to recovery to pay for this financial crisis.

Colleen K. Rich http://www.Retirement-and-Planning.com has a variety of backgrounds and is also a real estate investor. She is very aware of how the changing economy affects future investing for retirements. You can find more articles written by Colleen crich.invest@yahoo.com related to this and other topics online.