Edge of catastrophe?

"Edge of catastrophe? What a load of tosh," writes a commentator.

Here's how things stand in the US right now, courtesy of the House Speaker's office (click to enlarge):

Time magazine's Karen Tumulty writes: If you are having trouble reading the fine print, the blue line shows job losses in the 1990 recession; the red line is 2001, and the green line is the path we are on now.

She adds: To clarify, these are not projections. This is actual job-loss data.

The Speaker's office explains:

"This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession -- showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs – and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.

By comparison, we lost a total of 1.6 million jobs in the 1990-1991 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing; and we lost a total of 2.7 million jobs in the 2001 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing."