recession?

After the U.S government passed a bill to help bussineses in distress it seem like we are still headed in the wrong direction economy strength wise. Noone is expecting change this quickly but thing are just not improving as expected. I guess we can start asking ourselves not wether we are in a recession but rather how long will this recession last for. As credit is drying up thanks to the market freeze and consumer confidence is shot it is inevitable that we are in fact in the state of recession in my eyes. Financial panic began when fannie mae and freddie mac became national. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the fed, does not label this a reccesion but he does believe that the economy will operate below potential for some time.
As a consumer I am very worried not only about my consumption but when will businesses begin to gain their confidence. Until that happens our economy will not be at full strength because they are not willing to spend money. With many financial istitutuions going down like Washington Mutual and Wachovia people are questioning the viability of other global financial istitutions. Noone want to do business with companies that may soon be out of business. Interbank lending has been severly cut back and the libor average has reached extreme highs. Employment fell by 160,000 in september while vehicle sales fell to lows unseen since the early 1990's. People are countinuing to see the house market prices go down and are realizing that their investments are worth less than they were a year ago.
Our economy is in complete disarray and more action will be surely needed if we want to crawl out of this hole. We need to continue looking at consumer and business confidence levels as well as bank's ability and willingness to loan money to consumers so that our economy can start moving again.