While the roller-coaster ride of the world stock markets in the past several weeks has kept our adrenal pumping, the real issue that will have a direct impact on our lives is the economic recession that is spreading from the US to the rest of the world.

Many economists, including the 2008 Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, agree that the US economy is in recession. It's really not a question of whether it will happen, but rather how deeply it will go.

The US economy began to show signs of weakening months before the outbreak of the credit crisis. Some economists hold the view that the collapse of the subprime mortgage market was triggered by worsening economic trends that pulled the rug from under the feet of the property sector.