• 10% + unemployment resulting from reduced consumer purchasing.
• Significant bankruptcies of GM, Chrysler and maybe Ford leading to collapse of infrastructure companies supporting Detroit with steel, glass, rubber, plastic, electronics, forging, tool and Die.
• This could lead to 10 to 40 % unemployment in some Midwest communities with resultant mortgage and auto and credit card delinquencies and bankruptcies.
• Major retailers will continue to collapse behind Circuit City including Best Buy, Sears, Saks and Macy’s.
• Airlines like Jet Blue and US Airways will falter and maybe be absorbed.
• The banking crisis has just begun and will be worsened by the factors described herein.
• The same banks realizing the bailout will need to go into liquidation along with many others.
• The US government will discontinue bailouts due to lack of resources.
• Federal deficit will balloon to $2 trillion requiring borrowing that will devastate the corporate bond market.
• Dow will drop to 5500 or lower.
• Corporations will suspend all dividends for the next several years. KB Homes already cut their dividend by 75%.
• All the above exacerbating the mortgage crises that started in 2008.
• All of the above leading to millions of personal bankruptcies and loss of homes, autos, credit, life savings and employment.
• An income crises that will devastate the retirement benefits for seniors and impact all age groups from layoffs, closings, bankruptcies, disappearance of interest income, dividend income and capital losses from devaluations of homes and property and other assets.

No amount of new administration wishful thinking will vaporize these cycles set to inundate the US economy like the perfect storm when these real economic conditions combine to feed off of one another.

While the outlook is grim, we can weather this storm if we take the proper actions to batten down the hatches before they are blown away.

Many of my clients have already prepared their companies by participating in a strategic evaluation that EMC can perform quickly. This evaluation will guide you in making the decisions now that will prepare you mentally and emotionally for riding out the economic cyclone that’s amassing its energy to attack you head-on during 2009.

It’s time for you to organize your business around your strategic advantage and reduce unnecessary costs at every level. One way to get as lean and mean as possible without giving up your flexibility to respond to opportunities is to perform a strategic evaluation of your business. You will be amazed at the new way you view your company after this is done. It’s like being able to see through the fog.

Enterprise Management Consulting has developed a series of strategic planning and performance enhancing systems which can be customized to your business and implemented through all your associates. These systems are all based on the best management practices employed by the world’s most successful, finest managed and most admired companies.

Business process excellence is an art and a skill. Its successful delivery requires a blend of many sciences and people related skills that can only be accomplished through years of practice and experience.