What does it all mean?

There is so much hype surrounding the economy lately. People are constantly claiming that a recession is coming and that something bad is going to happen. It seems that the only questions left are "When?" and "How bad?". The problem I have with this, is that, according to Yahoo! News the S&P 500 has decreased by 40% this year so far before today's huge increase. 27% of that decrease has occured in a little over a month. So, how much does the economy need to decrease before we start calling it a recession? 40% is an awful lot, and isn't the definition of a recession when things like numbers begin to recede? So, let's call a spade a spade and forget about this baloney about "when" and let's begin to look to how to get out of this. We are in a recession. There, I said it. Now, how do we fix this?
All of these economists have solutions that they think will work, and maybe they will. The Lord knows I am not even close to being an expert on the economy or even the money I make. I have been reading a lot of history lately though and see some obvious parallels between the stock market crash in 1929 and this present situation. The fixes for that depression were to spend a whole bunch of money that we don't have. The majority of our national debt that we presently have began as a solution to the depression. FDR is now heralded as a savior, whereas Herbert Hoover is seen as the cause of the crash (he wasn't). Though there was a short term solution, it left us with a permanent national debt (and a very large one at that). Herbert Hoover is forever synonomous with Hoovervilles (makeshift towns made by those who were out of a job out of pretty much any and everything) and being responsible for pushing our nation into a depression. FDR, who was elected soon after the crash is seen as the savior of the United States because of what he did.
Ridiculous. George Bush, who had nothing to do with the collapse of the housing market (in fact, liberal ideas of giving loans to those who can't afford it is what ultimately collapsed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) will most definitely be remembered as being responsible for this recession. Our new president (unfortunately I think it may be Obama) will be seen as the new FDR. The only solutions being presented by either candidates involve dumping large amounts of non-existent money onto the problem. This does not solve it. We are treating the symptoms rather than fixing the problem. What's the solution? I have no idea. But we gotta do something different. Throwing our country in to greater debt is not the solution. This bailout will not work. Hopefully I'm wrong but we will see.
Let me know what you all think. Any solutions?