[djsherin]

The current crisis is due to the government forcing down interest rates for so long continually trying to avoid recession. We should have had a deep recession after the tech bubble, but instead we decided to spend spend spend and blow our money on consumer goods and with legislation like the CRA, we developed the much worse housing bubble. The government is still trying to get us to spend, but what we need to do is save, and make no mistake it will be painful, but this consumption based economy can’t last forever and the longer we put it off, the worse and longer the eventual recession/depression is going to be.

[PerConPat]

...what we need to do is save, and make no mistake it will be painful, but this consumption based economy can’t last forever and the longer we put it off, the worse and longer the eventual recession/depression is going to be.

Yes...The current fiscal approach is based on the populace being convinced that the freshly printed money now being tossed into the maw- bailouts etc..- is worth something. When they are no longer convinced and hyperinflation stalks the land, we will be treated to those double digit interest rates of yesteryear that helped make Carter a dirty word in knowledgeable circles..

If there is to be any chance of a reasonable recovery, it will be founded on tax cuts and drastic reductions of useless government spending. This will take time. Alas, it seems that without Carters there can be no Reagans.