The latest statistics don't paint a pretty condition of the global economy.

Here in the United States, GDP grew a mediocre 2.3 percent in the second quarter and likely is slowing from that pace this quarter. The eurozone economy grew only 1.3 percent in the second quarter, and Japan contracted 1.6 percent.

In China, meanwhile, the government reported growth of 7 percent for the second quarter, but many economists say the true figure is 3 to 5 percent.

So what's the upshot of all this? "We are in a global depression,” star financial author James Rickards told Canada Broadcasting Corp. “The whole world is slowing down.”

China's currency devaluation last week — the yuan has slid 3 percent against the dollar since then — illustrates the country's economic weakness, he said. “Currency wars have no logical conclusion except systemic reform or systemic collapse,” he said.

In the United States recent weak data may make the Federal Reserve hesitant to tighten monetary policy, Rickards said. “There is no way that the Fed can raise rates.” Some economists expect the central bank to move next month.

Meanwhile, ace economist Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, is concerned about commodities. Major commodity indices have dropped to 13-year lows amid copious supply and weak demand. And the implications aren't pretty for the global economy, he says.

"It appears that the bubble is bursting this year with negative consequences for the global economy, particularly for commodity-producing companies and countries," Yardeni writes in a commentary provided to Newsmax Finance. "That certainly explains why the global economy is mired in secular stagnation."

So does this mean a global recession?

"It all depends on whether the U.S. economy can decouple from the global morass and provide enough growth to offset the weakness in China, Japan, and the eurozone," Yardeni explains. "In the past when bubbles burst, recessions tended to follow. So history isn’t on our side."

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