"they seem to be able to jump back with a vengeance."

The US has unprecedented debt at all three levels of govenment. Given their lack of political will to make hard decisions and Bernanke's penchant for attempting to print their way out of debt, many much smarter than I see nothing other than a $US debasement and inflation. States and municipalities can't print and will need federal bail-outs (more printing) which further depressses the $US.

IMHO, any meaningful recovery will take years once they are forced to make those difficult decisions.

Check out the US debt clock. It's scary.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/