Amid the weakest stock-market close in 12 years, Nouriel "Dr. Doom" Roubini decided to scare everyone further, by telling CNBC our depression will last three years, unless maybe we void all mortgages.

Roubini reiterated that "most" American financial institutions are "entirely" (not partially!) insolvent; that the government should nationalize the banks; that the world economy may shrink and that there are signs we're in deflationary death spiral.

Then he added that the economy is literally dying, via 1,000 cuts, and that we're in the 15th month of a lengthy (he predicts) 36-month recession or near-depression. Breaking "every mortgage contract" might improve things, Roubini helpfully added.

It was a dark forecast even by the barely-legal standards of the pessimism porn pusher. While it's disconcerting to see CNBC still chock-a-block with vocal defenders of the Wall Street status quo, at least one knows where that leads: more of the same, with boomtime robber-barons socializing their losses during the busts. Roubini may well be right, but it is no doubt frightening for your typical, self-styled big-government-hating, Euro-socialism-fearing American to contemplate where it might take us.

Send an email to Ryan Tate, the author of this post, at ryan@gawker.com.