Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute says yes:

Conditions will continue to deteriorate. The global economy is terminally ill. The recession is in a brief remission, not the early stages of recovery. Cheap money, easy credit and unrestrained borrowing brought on an economic crisis that cannot be cured by monetary and fiscal policies that promote more cheap money, easy credit and unrestrained borrowing.

Nevertheless, Washington will continue to intervene, tax and exert control. Protests will escalate and riots will follow.

The numbers seem to agree:

Weekly initial unemployment claims are ascending again, up 4,000 from previous week, to 558,000. Details.

July retail sales declined 0.1 percent, short of "consensus estimates" prophesying a 0.6 percent gain. Details.

As Radley Balko noted earlier today, foreclosures are up, Way up. (Calculated Risk cautions that previous RealtyTrac figures have been questioned by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)

More from Celente here.