Banks have gone from lending to anyone with a pulse, to hoarding money. Consumers have gone from spending more than they earn, to spending most of what they earn, which hurts retailers.
The economy will recover, but it's going to take some time. If you have a 401K or stock portfolio that has lost value, you haven't actually lost MONEY unless you sell off parts of it. It will eventually crawl back up to where it was.
One GOOD thing that has come out of this is that we've seen how reducing demand for Gasoline can effect the price of Gasoline. If we want to see it spike again, we can all go out and buy some big new SUVs, which will also help GM, Ford and Chrysler rebound -- and keep putting off new product development until the next crisis.
Who knows, maybe we'll also run a big wooden stake through the heart of supply-side economics after this recession.

CD
BTW, I paid $1.80 for Premium yesterday at Kroger with my ten-cent discount.