Let’s face it. We are entering a recesssion. Foreclosures, brancurptcies and unemployment are rising at historic levels. People are starting to feel the crunch of living on credit for several years while, at the same time, the cost of gas is hitting historical levels. The smart consumers and drawing in the purse strings. Their money is already saved or spent on paying down student loans, credit cards or mortages.  From CNNMoney.com…

“This is will not avert a recession, because it is too late,” said Lakshman Achuthan, the managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. “For this to have kept us out of what was an avoidable recession, it needed to happen a couple of months ago, in January or February.”

In the past three months, employers have cut 232,000 jobs from their payrolls. The unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1% from 4.7% as recently as November.

Another 80,000 job losses are forecast to be reported in the April employment report this Friday, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com, while the unemployment rate is expected to climb to 5.2%.

In addition, leading retailers have reported disappointing sales. Auto sales have tumbled 8% from year-earlier levels in the first quarter. Home prices and sales have also continued their slide.

Finally, rising food and energy prices have hit consumer confidence. With that in mind, Achuthan thinks that people who will be receiving rebates will probably use them to pay bills or deal with a tighter budget brought on by higher prices. In other words, there won’t be the type of incremental spending that could actually spur the economy.