Washington ? The unemployment rate leaps to a two-year high, record numbers of people are forced from their homes and Wall Street nose-dives again. Such is the fallout from a housing meltdown that threatens to slingshot the country into a recession.

The big economic question these days is whether the weakening economy will survive the strains or collapse under them.

The odds have grown that the economy will slip into a recession. At the beginning of last year, many economists put that chance at less than 1-in-3; now an increasing number says it has climbed to around 50-50. Goldman Sachs, the biggest investment bank on Wall Street, even thinks a recession is inevitable this year.

Hopeful it can be avoided, President Bush and the Democrat-controlled Congress are exploring economic rescue measures, including possible tax rebates. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to lower interest rates as needed. The idea is to induce people to boost spending, especially on big-ticket items such as homes and cars, and revitalize economic activity.

“The recession gorilla is there. The question is can the Federal Reserve do enough to avert a recession?” asked Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight. “We think the odds are close to 50 percent that there will be a recession. It is high – no question about it.”

Much hope rides on the Fed. By dropping rates, it can act quickly – faster than Congress or the White House could deliver an economic boost.

“The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession,” Bernanke said last week. “We are forecasting slow growth.”

Bernanke signaled that a rate cut would come this month. Many economists believe a key rate, now at 4.25 percent, could fall by as much as one-half of a percentage point. Such a cut would lower the rates that are charged to millions of consumers and businesses for many different types of loans.

Analysts predict the Fed will keep doing that in the months ahead as part of a campaign that started in September, when the central bank cut rates for the first time in four years.

By one rough rule of thumb, a recession occurs when there are two consecutive quarters – six straight months – when the economy shrinks.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, the recognized arbiters for dating recessions, uses a more complicated formula. It takes into account such things as employment and income growth. By that measure, the last recession was in 2001, starting in March and ending in November.

Tax rebates aimed at stimulating the economy were part of Bush’s $1.35 trillion in tax cuts in 2001. They were credited with helping to make the recession short and mild.