Longer term I see a repeat of the 70's in the US but worse . A stagnant economy caused by too much debt, lack of consumer purchasing power and high and persistent unemployment caused by the governments response of not allowing the economy to cleanse itself. The kicker is that there will eventually be a lot of inflation as well caused by the loss of confidence in the US dollar. Part of the current rise of commodities is the effect of a falling US dollar.

In the short term it is harder to predict. The US government is sort of like a cornered animal. They need to finance a large amount of debt this year (1.85 trillion+++) and they don't have enough buyers to cover it all. At the same time they can't let the long term interest rates rise much further or all the residential and commercial mortgage resets coming due in the next two years will cause an even bigger insolvency problem. They could react in unexpected ways such as another foray into the safety trade.