Every month this year more than 2 million people filed an initial claim for benefits, reflecting a staggering downward spiral in private-sector employment to only 108 million, 7.5 million off the peak.
The problem with suing banks for billions, some argue, is that the settlements could push them over the edge sending their stocks into a downward spiral as investors flee the sector.
Given that public sector costs and prices tend to spiral upwards, we are going to be hearing a lot more about "efficiency" - how to make the money go much further.
In this environment, therefore, government must borrow and spend the savings generated by the deleveraging in the private sector in order to keep the economy from entering a deflationary spiral.
These politicians tend to rely heavily on the support of unionized public-sector workers and almost always repay the favor by lavishing those same workers with a gravity-defying upward spiral of ever-increasing pay and benefits.