What this means is that the Great Depression may no longer be something that we read about in our history books, but something we tell our gradnkids about. We as "americans' are used to living fat and happy, and there is a real possibility that we may learn what its like to live without the creature comforts that we are used to.
Being in the mortgage business, I've seen this coming for a long time, and never wanted to admit it was a possibilty.