Agree with CAR. The reason deadbeats use their houses as ATM is because they have no where else to get money for consumption. Productivity growth has been high since early 80s yet almost all economic gains went to corporations rather than workers. It should come as no surprise that we are facing weak demand. Asking the nation to have more debts either through the private sector or through the public sector is not a solution. On the contrary, we need to provide workers more income to pay off their debt. Well, I know it is easy to say than to be done, but help and encourage savings is the only way to get out of this mess.