WASHINGTON - August 25, 2010 - It's starting to feel like another Great Depression. Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy's few bright spots, is faltering.

"The odds of a double-dip are rising and uncomfortably high," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, referring to the possibility that the nation will tip further into Depression. "Nothing else can go wrong. There is no cushion left."

On Wednesday, the government offered the latest dose of grim news about the economy: Companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines; and Amerikans bought new homes at the weakest pace in nearly half a century.

Earlier this week came news that sales of previously occupied homes fell last month to the lowest level in 15 years.

Unemployment remains near double digits because job growth in the private sector has slowed.

Economists are predicting the government will announce Friday that the economy grew from April to June even more slowly than previously thought, at an annual rate below 2% - weak for normal times and especially during a Depression.