Coming back to Chicago after a year was a journey to a land of palpable uncertainty. America and its entrepreneurial citizens are struggling to get their heads round a slew of negative indicators about the performance of their world powerhouse economy.

News was breaking that requests for building permits, a vital indicator of the health of the savagely depressed residential real estate market, had fallen by 3% in July. This offset a slight improvement in manufacturing, but the real bad news is that this is rapidly turning into a jobless recovery, if indeed it is a recovery at all. American firms cut their payrolls by 131,000 in July, the second successive monthly fall. At the same time, there are fears of inflation as wholesale prices for food, cars and other core producer prices rose for the ninth month in a row.

The impact of all this depressing news will have implications for the US economy for years, probably decades to come. Consumers are spending less and saving more, most notably the baby boomers now approaching retirement. The US Census Bureau revealed that people between the ages of 65 and 74 are now spending 12% less than a decade earlier. This reflects the damage that the recession has done to America’s wealth. Net household assets are down 18% since 2007. Americans are feeling poorer.

At the same time, the seeds for future problems are being sown. US junk bonds are selling at a record pace as investors cast around for a decent return on their savings. They bought $21bn of these higher-risk products in just the first half of August, traditionally a quiet month where sales have averaged only $6bn in the whole month over the past ten years. There has also been a surge in sales of securities backed by consumer loans. Sounds grimly familiar doesn’t it? It seems some lessons are never learnt.

But how does an embattled Chicago feel? In a word, quiet. The huge Nordstrom department store was all dressed up with glittering displays but few shoppers to serve as lunchtime approached. The surrounding mall was equally deserted and tables could be had at every unit in the food court. All around the business district, restaurants which admittedly were clearly struggling a year ago have now closed.

Almost the only busy environment on the whole trip was the non air-conditioned Immigration Hall at O’Hare airport. Here irritated visitors spent well over two sweaty hours waiting in line to come and spend their recently more valuable euros, pounds and Chinese renminbi, or take summer courses at Illinois universities. Interestingly, visitors seemed to outnumber incoming US citizens by a margin, suggesting that Americans really are travelling less, another indicator of troubled times.

Talking to Chicagoans, the mood was grim. Their vibrant spirit of enterprise seemed almost crushed by the toxic mixture of financial pressures and viciously partisan politics constantly being paraded across their television screens. One cab driver commented on China’s accession to number two in the league table of world economies, supplanting Japan. Things must be bad when ordinary Americans are taking notice of world news.