[speeder]

I'm not enough of an expert to make accurate predictions, but I do know that the U.S. economy is based on rampant consumerism. When that screeches to a halt, we're hosed. At least for a while. Our lifestyle is one of luxury compared to most of the rest of the world, even for the middle class, where we raid Best Buy and the Harley dealer for fun schit that we don't really need. When $$ and/or credit gets tight, all of those businesses and their shareholders will be hurting.

We are in a bad spot right now. We've been conditioned as a people, (maybe spoiled), for the last ~60 years w/ mostly prosperity and growth. It really accelerated in the 10 years between 1995 and 2005 w/ the stock market and RE+ dirt-cheap energy. Any prosperity and growth in real income for average Americans will be a relative thing, not comparable to the way we have been living, IMO.