NEW YORK (PNN) - August 7, 2011 - Economists are now warning that an escalation in the Second Great Depression, what many are calling the double-dip Depression, could be on its way; and it will probably be even more devastating than the previous period of economic woe.

NEW YORK - August 6, 2011 - Standard & Poor’s announced Friday night that it has downgraded the United States credit rating for the first time, dealing a huge symbolic blow to the world’s economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the Amerikan political system.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - August 4, 2011 - Alabama is responsible for much of the 1.1 million increase in food stamp recipients after horrific storms tore through the area and led some residents to seek disaster relief, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

LONDON, England - August 4, 2011 - The European Central Bank has abandoned Italy and Spain to their tortured fate.

Its refusal to act in the face of an existential threat to monetary union has set off violent tremors across the global financial system, raising the risk that the crisis will spiral out of control.

TOKYO, Japan - August 4, 2011 - Asian stock markets tumbled Friday amid fears the U.S. is mired in Depression and Europe’s debt crisis is worsening. The sell-off follows the biggest one-day points decline on Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis.

WASHINGTON - August 3, 2011 - Unemployment rates rose in more than 90% of U.S. cities in June, mirroring a national slowdown in hiring.

The Department of Labor said Wednesday that unemployment rates rose in 345 large metro areas. They dropped in 20 cities and were unchanged in seven. That's worse than May, when rates rose in only 210 cities; and it is a sharp reversal from April, when unemployment rates fell in nearly all metro areas.

ALBANY, New York - August 3, 2011 - Taxed-out New Yorkers are voting with their feet, with a staggering 1.6 million residents fleeing the state over the last decade.

For the second consecutive decade, New York led the nation in the percentage of citizens leaving for other states, according to the report by the Empire Center for State Policy.