>Color me pessimistic, but it looks to me like we're rolling into
>an extended Japanese-style economic stagnation. How much more
>home equity can people float to keep the economy kicking?
There are stimulative forces afoot. "Childful" families will soon get checks in the mail - $400 per kid. Some $150 billion in stimulus will hit the U.S. economy in the coming months. That will be countered to some degree by budget cuts at the state and local levels, but it's still a pretty big number. Oil prices are off a bit, and consumer spirits have picked up a bit. And the Fed is likely to cut rates again soon. That's not to say we'll see a boom by Xmas, but there are antidotes to the falling apart problem.
Doug