If anyone–like obstructionist Republicans–had any doubt that we have no time to waste on the stimulus, we are peering over the edge of the abyss:

Furloughs, wage reductions, hiring freezes and shorter hours simply did not do enough. A year into this recession, companies across the board are resorting to mass job cuts.

Home Depot, Caterpillar, Sprint Nextel and at least eight other companies announced on Monday they would cut more than 75,000 jobs in the United States and around the world — a gloomy start to the workweek for employees anxious about holding their own as the economy sinks. Caterpillar, the maker of heavy equipment, is slashing its payrolls by 16 percent. Texas Instruments said late in the day that it would eliminate 3,400 jobs, or 12 percent of its work force.

Jobs began disappearing in home building and mortgage operations early in the recession, then across finance and banking more generally. Now the ax is falling across large swaths of manufacturing, retailing and information technology, taking out workers from New York to Seattle. Just last week, Microsoft announced its first significant job cuts ever.[emphasis added AND NEEDED]

   And…

Battered home values in 20 of America’s biggest metropolitan areas fell even farther in November as the full force of the financial crisis broke over American homeowners, according to a widely watched measure of housing prices released Tuesday.

Home prices in November dropped 18.2 percent from a year earlier, not quite as bad as economists had expected, but still the steepest plunge on record, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Prices in 11 of the 20 metropolitan areas surveyed fell at record rates, and 14 areas reported double-digit declines from November 2007.

The 20-city index for November fell to 154.59, its lowest point since January 2004.

“The disappointing news is that the declines are still accelerating,” said Adam York, an economic analyst at Wachovia. “It emphasizes just how much stress the housing market is under.”

   And, if that isn’t enough for you, from The Wall Street Journal (subscription):

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its January consumer confidence index fell to a historic low for the survey, at a reading of 37.7, from the revised 38.6 seen in December. Economists had expected a modest rebound, and had predicted the January index would come in at 39.0.

"It appears consumers have begun the New Year with the same degree of pessimism that they exhibited in the final months of 2008," said Lynn Franco, who leads the private research group’s Consumer Research Center. "Consumers remain quite pessimistic about the state of the economy and about their earnings," she said, adding, "we can’t say that the worst of times are behind us."

   Hang on…somehow.