The Congressional Budget Office’s announcement Wednesday that 2009’s budget deficit was going to be $1.19 trillion – before a nickel of President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan has been included – raises a crucial question for the U.S. economy: Is there too much stimulus, and what effect would too much stimulus have?

This week’s economic reports will be highlighted by Friday’s unemployment report, which analysts expect will illustrate the 11th straight month of declining job ranks in the U.S. economy.

With gross domestic product plummeting and the jobless rate at a 14-year high, U.S. policymakers will have to author at least one more stimulus package in the months to come if they are to elbow aside the impact of high unemployment and depressed consumers.

And now that the governments of America have literally become the economy (and paying themselves handsomely in the process!), there is no way that the government can be allowed to shrink…

The European Commission (EC) said yesterday (Monday) that the Eurozone economy has already slipped into a recession and strong and stable economic growth will not return until 2010. The European Central Bank (ECB), originally charged with the task of maintaining price stability, has now found itself with the added responsibility of encouraging growth and will likely cut interest rates later this week.

Come Wednesday morning – after the presidential election tomorrow (Tuesday) – the United States will have a new commander-in-chief. The president-elect will face some significant challenges: A weak economy (okay, a recession, given last week’s gross domestic product (GDP) report, which confirmed just how dire the country’s economic situation had become).

The U.S. economy shrank at an annualized rate of 0.3% in the third quarter – the biggest decline in seven years – after businesses cut back on investments and consumer spending experienced its sharpest pullback since 1980. And though the contraction was smaller than economists expected, they are still predicting a drawn-out downturn that could be one of worst U.S. recessions since the Great Depression.

Global investors seeking undervalued markets might want to look at Russia, China, India, Malaysia, South Korea or Brazil. And if they want to avoid overvalued markets, they’d be best to eschew Italy, the United States, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, or Germany.

The GDP, gross domestic product, of any economy is the sum of all economic activity that occurs in every household, in every company, at all levels across the economy. So, if you buy a pair of jeans at the store there is a lot of GDP involved.

Amid all the gloom investors are feeling right now, South Korea has produced some sunny rays. On April 9, the Asian Tiger suggested that its economy could accelerate and that its stock market could take off.