That may be (I'd agree - there's lots more financial slack in the system), but the word 'crisis' is useful because it suggests that the correction ahead will entail either serious displacement efforts (Fed bailouts along the lines of 9/98) or moving the cost to those least able to pay (the low/medium-income homeowners - especially African-Americans - who are going to be on the streets very soon).
The more serious problem, it seems, is the durable US current account deficit, a geographical and temporal displacement that may be untenable.
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Seems a little apocalyptic to me. My impression about the housing problem is that people won't be on the street -- they'll be renting garden apartments and the like. If the mortgage goes belly up they still have the income they were using to service it available to pay rent.
The current account is a different matter.
mbs (waiting for the bubble to pop, so I can buy a bigger house)
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