I’ve heard of the “Second Great Depression coming” about every 5-7 years since the mid 70’s. First it was going to be caused by spiking oil and runaway inflation, then it was going to be caused by fiscal overtightening, then it was going to be caused by the Japanese eating our lunch and overtaking the US, then it was going to be caused by the massive amounts of wealth destroyed in the dot-com bubble bust and now it is going to happen because of excessive-liquidity fueled housing boom.
All these things in the past caused recessions, and the economy suffered, as I think it will this time. But predictions of a once-per-century calamity happen way too often. Eventually this will be right, but from my perspective, the prediction has been repeated the past 30 years and will eventually be right.
