In the U.S., the tech bubble has burst; the Dow Index is starting to buckle;and, despite a short-term bear market rally, the entire stock market is set to fall even further. We are already seeing signs of mounting debt problems in the U.S. -- the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric in California, the implosion of countless dot-coms such as Pets.com and NBCi.com, and the frantic search for new funding by various telecoms including Lucent Technologies.

But Americans aren't alone. Japan has been in or near a recession for over a decade. And the Japanese economy is only getting weaker. Japan has already experienced bank failures, life insurance failures, and brokerage failures -- and these were not just small companies, they were some of the largest banks, life insurance companies, and brokerage firms in the country! And the carnage in Japan continues to this day. Several more companies are teetering on the brink of failure -- the government just confessed that the weakening economy is triggering more bankruptcies.