You may be forgiven for speaking hyperbolically if your personal situation is fragile, but the economy is not in "shreds".
One mistake in your article here is that every company was cooking its books. That's just not true. Yes, most took liberties with ambiguous accounting standards (a fault of the very regulatory agencies supposed to prevent such things), but the real losers were anything but poor dupes. These were the suckers that thought they could get something for nothing as investors; the fools that thought a "new paradigm" could support P/E's of 200 or more; the morons that thought that a company that had ".com" in its name was a sure winner.
Another thought: the IT profession is not flooded with H1B's as much as most of my fellow Americans believe. The fact is that IT is flooded with talent, period. Every yahoo with a couple of bucks and a penchant for video gaming went out and got is MS certification and thought the dough would roll in. For every ad I place for a LAN administrator I see at least 200 resumes. Sorry to tell all you techies this, but it's a buyers market out there, so you better have some sweet goods. And if you've never worked in the industry you're applying to, forget it.
How many industries need to be destroyed before you finally admit the economy is in "shreds" ... or at least hurting very badly?
How many of your friends who are highly skilled Telecommunications, IT, EE's and others need to be out of work before you finally admit the economy is in "shreds" ... or at least hurting very badly?
What does the unemployment rate need to be before you finally admit the economy is in "shreds" ... or at least hurting very badly?
How high does the bankruptcy rate need to be before you finally admit the economy is in "shreds" ... or at least hurting very badly?
How many homes need to be foreclosed on before you finally admit the economy is in "shreds" ... or at least hurting very badly?
By the time YOU lose YOUR job, it'll be too late.
With over 1 million H1bs out there with IT jobs you are either sadly mistaken, or are just plain lying.