I think that you’re right PD.
I just looked at realtytrac.com and I was surprised at the NODs out there. There’ll be a lot of borrowers walking away from their homes.

As for Japan, the government increased public debt to 176% of GDP (highest of the rich countries) to support the tanking economy and the building industry (they built roads and bridges to nowhere). It’s a good thing that the Japanese people are great savers. I’ve worked in Japan and I think that they work long hard hours but they are not that productive. Social pressure cause them to put in long hours but most of it is wasted (especially in white collar professions).

Japan has some great world class companies and some great technologies (such as mobile phones) but their structural problems are much greater than America’s.

The Japanese are slaving away to support bloated industries. For what? $1 million for a small apartment in Tokyo? That’s nuts.

Our cultural ability to say f— it and walk away from the debt will allow us to recover economically much faster than Japan.