Ready?  Let’s go: IT spending is down:

But wait, it gets worst: we’re headed towards Great Depression II, apparently, here are 30 reasons why:

1. America’s credit rating may soon be downgraded below AAA

2. Fed refusal to disclose $2 trillion loans, now the new “shadow banking system”

3. Congress has no oversight of $700 billion, and Paulson’s Wall Street Trojan Horse

4. King Henry Paulson flip-flops on plan to buy toxic bank assets, confusing markets

5. Goldman, Morgan lost tens of billions, but planning over $13 billion in bonuses this year

6. AIG bails big banks out of $150 billion in credit swaps, protects shareholders before taxpayers

7. American Express joins Goldman, Morgan as bank holding firms, looking for Fed money

8. Treasury sneaks corporate tax credits into bailout giveaway, shifts costs to states

9. State revenues down, taxes and debt up; hiring, spending, borrowing add even more debt

10. State, municipal, corporate pensions lost hundreds of billions on derivative swaps

11. Hedge funds: 610 in 1990, almost 10,000 now. Returns down 15%, liquidations up

12. Consumer debt way up, now at $2.5 trillion; next area for credit meltdowns

13. Fed also plans to provide billions to $3.6 trillion money-market fund industry

14. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bleeding cash, want to tap taxpayer dollars

15. Washington manipulating data: War not $600 billion but estimates actually $3 trillion

16. Hidden costs of $700 billion bailout are likely $5 trillion; plus $1 trillion Street write-offs

17. Commodities down, resource exporters and currencies dropping, triggering a global meltdown

18. Big three automakers near bankruptcy; unions, workers, retirees will suffer

19. Corporate bond market, both junk and top-rated, slumps more than 25%

20. Retailers bankrupt: Circuit City, Sharper Image, Mervyns; mall sales in free fall

21. Unemployment heading toward 8% plus; more 1930’s photos of soup lines

22. Government policy is dictated by 42,000 myopic, highly paid, greedy lobbyists

23. China’s sees GDP growth drop, crates $586 billion stimulus; deflation is now global, hitting even Dubai

24. Despite global recession, U.S. trade deficit continues, now at $650 billion

25. The 800-pound gorillas: Social Security, Medicare with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities

26. Now 46 million uninsured as medical, drug costs explode

27. New-New Deal: U.S. planning billions for infrastructure, adding to unsustainable debt

28. Outgoing leaders handicapping new administration with huge liabilities

29. The “antitaxes” message is a new bubble, a new version of the American dream offering a free lunch, no sacrifices, exposing us to more false promises

30. To read #30 click here… but it’s basically greed and selfishness of American business leaders.  True.  But Sad.

I’m loving it.  The Stock Market is supposedly the great wealth equalizer… so it’s nice to see it’s also the wealth destroyer that creates a level playing field.