[Orangedog]

Given the high debt levels in this country, as well as the large amount of money that most people have invested in their real estate, I think that any deflationary scenario would be a disaster. I think the only exit lies through inflation, as painful as that may be.

This is how I also see things turning out. Why? because it's like all government action...it will punish the people who worked hard and saved their entire lives while giving a pass to the idiots who run $50,000 on their credit cards.

[djf]

I don't see how it can work. You can't with one hand go on inflating real estate four, five, six hundred thousand, then with the other hand, send two million jobs to India. It's untenable.

[Question_Assumptions]

This is how I also see things turning out. Why? because it's like all government action...it will punish the people who worked hard and saved their entire lives while giving a pass to the idiots who run $50,000 on their credit cards.

Given the debt statistics (and counting mortgages as "debt"), I suspect there are more debtors than savers and whatever the government does is going to cause the least pain to the majority. I don't think the savers can win, actually. The problem is that wiping out someones savings is not going to wreck them the same way that driving someone into bankruptcy will. Fair? Probably not. But that's the way it has been for thousands of years (people have been unable to manage debt for as long as there have been loans).