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We are certainly at the start of a prolonged economic downturn. If it will turn into a full-blown depression is, at present, impossible to tell. Much depends on just how truthful banks and other corporations have been so far in disclosing their losses.
Right now, the global economy is in a very fragile state. It's inevitable that a large number of companies will go bankrupt over the next year or so. If any of the big ones unexpectedly fall, it could well be the beginning of a massive chain reaction - a bit like a very slow avalanche.
The main problem is that much of our current wealth is built on a pattern of consistent overconsumption. The western world has, over the past few decades, wasted much of its wealth instead of investing it. Productivity growth in emerging economies, technological progress and the rapid expansion of the financial system made it possible to keep this up for far longer than it could have gone on under other circumstances, but in the long run it simply wasn't sustainable.
The way out is, in truth, rather clear. The west needs to allocate a larger portion of its resources to research, innovation and development, and a smaller one to wasteful consumption and corporate welfare.
The biggest potential problem is rather clear, too. If governments continue their habit of keeping inefficient companies and industries alive through trade barriers and subsidies, and if wealth continues to be wasted rather than reinvested, we're pretty much fucked. Maybe not this time around, maybe not even the next, but soon enough.
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