A bombshell of a week

What a bombshell of a week.

Carved out from the landscape are many thousands of jobs and businesses collapsed or on the verge of it.

Quote of the week: "Everybody is trying to figure out how to survive"

It's from Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight and makes it sound as if a Hiroshima-type bomb has devastated the land.

But he's right as it's the way many people are feeling.

People have stopped spending. Warehouses are full of goods no-one at home or abroad want or can afford or use. Manufacturing has stopped.

And the layoffs this week? Who can keep up. Ford, NEC, Cessna, Kodak, Black & Decker, Boeing Co., Pfizer, Caterpillar, Home Depot, Target Corp, Starbucks, Saks, Warner Bros, Intel. Here's a list of the 100,000 or more in the US alone.

The records keep falling. Worst January ever for the Dow, the US economy's last quarter shrunk by more than since 1982 - meaning the USeconomy shrank at the fastest pace in 26 years.

And US unemployment lines have stretched to the longest on record, a sign that the U.S. labor market continues to worsen.

(Bomb photo credit: US National Archives)