Scaredycat, With regards to your idea that a “big shock” will knock this thing out of a phony “equilibrium” once it gets there:

Way back when on this blog people used to use the turning of a large ship analogy for when the price declines would start in earnest. That ship got turned around. It is still a big ship. The gov. has the tug boats hooked up but they are working in stormy weather. Things are dicey from this perspective…maybe a few lines snap and a tail wind is still pushing on the ships bulk, but the ship is not going to break loose and hit top speed all the sudden. They will hold it until the bigger tug boats or more favorable weather come to aid… or the thing gets washed into the rocks and flips on its side and dies. I guess we can take a poll.