Not to depress you with statistics this early in the new year, but I found some recently released numbers from JP Morgan interesting.  Here is a random sampling that gives some indication of the real numbers behind the recession:

• S&P Index – down 37% in 2008
• The average stock in the index was down 40%
• S&P earnings growth is down over 24%
• Unemployment is at 6.7% – the highest level since the early 90’s.  However, this is a little less depressing when compared to the 50 year average of 5.9% and a high of around 11% in the early 80’s
• An astounding 57% of US Treasuries are owned by foreigners.  This contrasts to 12% thirty years ago.
• Our GDP per capita last year was $45,800 – which still compares favorably to every other country. Canada was at $38,600, Germany at $34,100, Japan at $33,500, and India at $2,600.
• On the negative side, world-wide GDP growth was just under 3%, but the US experienced no growth.