The answer is another war in the ME which effectively sustains crude prices above the $100
The fact is the US is teetering at the edge of a depressionary cycle. The titanic has already hit the iceberg. The question now is how long before it sinks, not if.
if serious panic is what you are asking, when the average american starts questioning the value of the dollar, and since the average american doesn't know shit from shit, this won't happen in a long long time, at least not until they wake up one day to see dollars wrapped as toilet papers
"Inflation 1923-24: A woman in Germany feeds her tiled stove with money. The money was worth less than firewood."