The deficit-cutting craze of the modern day threatens another such double dip. Its promoters say they're out to protect long-term economic prospects, but without a short-term recovery there may not be a long term to protect. If they get their way, we may not feel the consequences of their error before it's too late to fix.
Thus far there's been a complete failure to comprehend the magnitude of the problem, and there is and will be a complete failure to comprehend the magnitude of the consequences. I used to joke, "you know what else causes deficits? unemployment." Mass widespread long term unemployment will cause all kinds of things, including increasing the likelihood of continued mass widespread long term unemployment.
Gates recently said, of the Pentagon:
We begin to have to do stupid things if the supplemental isn’t passed by the Fourth of July recess
The unemployed may have to do stupid things if their supplemental isn't passed, too.