"You have people sitting on cash," Segall said. "The economy is sitting on empty until we get back to spending. But the consumer, he's absolutely petrified by these credit-card companies if he defaults or makes a late payment."

"When that money starts to dry up because of a recession, down markets and investors' fear, that's when they start to implode because you can't keep the cycle going," said Segall.

"Feeding from the public trough for the benefit of corporate America is wrong," he added. "It's just plain wrong."

"Any kind of a bailout package is going to require restructuring of this industry, which means it's going to have to be downsized. So we're going to lose a a consequential amount of auto workers, workers that are tied to automobile parts suppliers and dealerships," said Segall.

"They are literally pulling out all the stops," said Morris Segall, president of SPG Trend Advisors, a Baltimore consulting firm.

Segall did not have a lot of good news about our current economy, but he did have some excellent advice on how we all might consider weathering this difficult time for our personal finances. Here are his recommendations for what Americans can do to get through the bad times and to best ready themselves for a recovery that eventually will come.