“Think of it this way: it didn’t exist then, and it doesn’t exist now.”
That’s a profound statement and a true one.
People thought the wealth existed, and made plans based on their thoughts. The wealth, however, was an inflationary mirage.
The economic stimulus package hussein intends to enact will set the stage for another inflationary mirage later on. That future one promises to be worse than this present one because it will be combined with all sorts of restraints on market activities (meaning, restraints on individual planning), so the market will never have a chance to readjust and recover. Most people will then demand complete control of all economic activity by the federal government, and the New York Times will publish editorials on how “laissez faire has failed.”
It existed in one form or another. I lost ~30 grand in the market and watched the value of my house fall by another $15,000. The loss of spending power was real; therefore, the wealth was real. If the report is accurate, $6.9 trillion worth of real wealth disapeared into the void in 2008.