“We will not work our way out of the depression/recession until we take the focus OFF of housing/credit and shift our resources to the REAL economy. The idiots in D.C. do not get this.”

Well said, CA Renter!

Here’s a fun little thought experiment. Imagine all the capital poured into the Iraq war and the housing bubble and bust. Now, imagine instead all that money going to building solar panel plants and putting the new panels on every rooftop in America. For the forseeable future our power would be essentially free (not really in accounting terms as the panels get depreciated, etc., but in spirit), would not run out, could power plug in hybrid cars and power industries that, with cheap power, could compete with the cheap labor in China and other countries. We would be truly wealthy, not phony wealthy because our houses are expensive and our credit cards are maxed out, but truly producing abundance. The ninnies in DC still are clinging to the idea that “consumerism” is the definition of wealth.